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[Page 3]
forty minute run and was met, as arranged, by the school motor car. In this there was a run of some ten miles over some of the worst roads I have ever seen. One minute we would be bumping over rock hard mud – called tracks full of eight or twelve inch ruts, and then we would have the wheels buried up to the axle in soft mud and water & it would be a case of get out and push backwards or forwards till we worked down to something which two wheels could grip. We eventually reached the school at about twenty minutes to one and as the return train left in about an hour's time it was a case of seeing as much as possible in a short space of time. It was very windy and there were no machines in actual use, but Captain Harrison, the officer-in-charge, took me over the workshop where they employ men both in repairing or replacing any part of an aeroplane which may be broken, & also in constructing complete machines. He also showed me several different types, both monoplane and triplane, and gave me a very good idea of the mechanical manipulation of the different planes. That in itself is very simple, but I suppose the facility of instinctively readjusting one's balance can only be acquired after considerable practice. Then there are all the details of construction – both of the machines themselves and of the engines – with which I hope to become well acquainted in time.
Capt. Harrison gave me three letters of introduction to men who are both personal friends of his and also at the top of the tree in the aviation world in England. These should be valuable to me when I commence work over there.
I hope you got the Melbourne Herald which I posted to you thinking that the specimen pages of the Dardanelles newspaper might be of interest. It is good to have some idea of how our boys are passing away the slack time there.
Today has been much calmer and we have been in sight of land since about ten o'clock this morning. For the twenty four hours ending at noon today we only progressed 187 miles, all on account of the storm. Now, however, we hope to be in Fremantle by Thursday night and have a clear day there on Friday. I am hoping to see my uncle H.E. Whitfeld there.
We have on board two Frenchmen travelling from Noumea to France to go to the munitions factories there. One of them is a quite good stamp of man, good natured and sociable, and a few of us are taking advantage of the opportunity to exercise our tongues and ears with French conversation. He speaks faster than the average Parisian and I think that we are keeping to a good literary standard. There is also with us a Varsity man named Hughes who is a keen student both of classics and