Old Time Stuff #8

When I went back to school I was able to fly occasionally with a new found friend, an ex-Eagle Squadron pilot named Stan who owned a Stearman PT-13 and we flew it all year 'round. Flying in the winter wasn't the nicest experience when one didn't have real winter flying gear. The cold found any fissure in your clothing and jetted a stream of ice through it to freeze your skin. A winter flight ended with the shakes and shivers that were reduced by a long hot shower. It was flying, though. In the spring, Stan bought a beautiful little Culver Cadet and we flew that many times out of Raliegh-Durham Airport. What a sweet little airplane. He said that it was a little Spitfire. One evening when we were preparing to land, we couldn't get the landing gear to lock in the down position. We flew around the airport struggling with the insertion of the pin that had to pass through the holes in two sliding plates that locked the gear in place. As darkenes descended on us Stan decided to bellyland his little jewel and chalk it up to age of the mechanism. One last try was successful and we somehow landed in the dark with no lights and just one bounce. As the senior year approached, Stan turned to more seriuos activities and sold all his airplanes. He wasn't the only flyer there in those years after the war. Two of my fraternity brothers were navy fighter pilots and when they had their weekend duties in the reserves, they often visited the Duke campus in an F-4U and F-6F and made loud and low strolls down the north- south legs of the quadrangle and let everyone know that the navy still had those who flew.
My school days ended in 1949 when I had to return home short of graduating when my mother was ill and alone. No more flying for almost 20 years.