Document Type
Newsletter
Publication/Presentation Date
1-2025
Reflection
On Christmas Day, the temperature here was a very mild 12C (54F) but the New Year has bought the UK very cold weather (down to -5C or 23F here but colder in other parts of the UK). The most predictable thing we can say about our weather is that it is unpredictable! It is predictable that Florida will experience a hurricane during the year, but when, where, and to what extent, is unpredictable. Not since 2005, have three hurricanes made landfall in Florida as in 2024, two being particularly devastating - Helene and Milton.
In October 1941, a group of 50 cadets, soon to become Course 3, was heading down to Clewiston when they were told that Hurricane Annie was expected there on October 6, and the planes had been removed north to safety. Without hanger space at Clewiston, they were very vulnerable in high winds. On October 5, 1941, pilots including some Course 1 cadets, now able to fly a Stearman solo, had taken the planes first to Arcadia and then to Ocala. When they got to Ocala on October 6, they were told the hurricane had changed course and was heading for Tallahassee, which is where they were also heading! They spent that night at Ocala after the pilots made sure their planes were safe. According to one pilot, “we dug two holes for each ship [plane] and buried the wheels so that the ships were securely fixed”. They then returned to Clewiston via Arcadia. Meantime, the new Course 3 cadets arrived at Clewiston, finding no hurricane and no planes while ‘Annie’ was slamming into Tallahassee. It was windy in Clewiston, but as the Edinburgh contingent noted, they had known “much stronger winds in Scotland!”
Similar memories from pilots who have long since ‘handed in their logbooks’ are amongst the many that are now on the 5BFTS digital archive hosted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). Their stories and the many documents and photographs that have been collected over the years, are being preserved for future generations. People are asking what their grandfathers/great-grandfathers/great-uncles, did during WW2. Thanks to ERAU, if they became a pilot at 5BFTS, their descendants will be able to find out!
A Happy and Peaceful New Year to everyone.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Harding, J. A. (2025). 5 BFTS Association Newsletter No. 30 - New Year 2025. , (). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/bfts-clewiston-newsletters/29