Dear Dave:
Thanks for the call. After checking I think I goofed and my message to you was not sent expressing my appreciation for your review of my book (The Miracle Landing) in the October/November 2013 issue of Midwest Flyer Magazine. What you wrote could not have been better expressed and I believe most of the sales have come from your review. If I should luck out and make the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in the future, that could incite local publicity and improve sales.
The Interstate Cadet on the cover of the October/November 2013 issue reminded me of early Army Air Corps training.
Early in World War II, there was serious competition between branches of the service for potential aircrew recruits. Since they could not accommodate them with their existing training programs, they signed them up and placed them in holding patterns in colleges all over the country.
I went to Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, and there was a local flying service that provided training in the Interstate Cadet. We all received 10 hours of instruction, but did not solo.
The next I heard about the Cadet was when I learned of the lady flight instructor, Cornelia Fort, who was giving flight instruction in an Interstate Cadet as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was on a collision course with a Japanese Zero, and as she swerved to avoid a collision, she saw the rising sun painted on the airplane. She later joined the Women Air Force and died in an accident ferrying a BT-13 over Texas. That happened in March 1943 while I was flying the bird at Kansas State. Keep warm!
Harold Gifford
Pilot/Author
The Miracle Landing
Woodbury, Minnesota
www.signalmanpublishing.com
