The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-25

lytke $5850 or $6885 or $8691 30. The curious thing about all these loans was that they were all for the same purpose: ITO buy one training plane"
 What goes on here, that the Unit ed States government steps out to make lot of John Doe Citizens the wherewithal to buy 'em an airplane? The answer is simple. These are the planes that are be- ing used by private flying schools in the civilian pilot training pro- gram of the Civilian Aeronautics Administration. And these schools are doing the primary and sec- ondary training of pilots for Army and Navy.
 A short time ago, a bank in Som- erville, Mass knocked the eyes cut of local newspaper readers by of fering to loan money at 6 per cent simple interest, and no carrying
 z .rges, for anyone who wanted to
 borrow money to buy an airplane
 That made banking, newspaper and aviation history, for it was the first of its kind. Heretofore, sound, con- Servative bankers would have con- sidered loans to buy planes as ex- l tremely bad business. That's why the big Reconstruction Finance Corporation h ad to make these loans-just to get this business go- 1 ing and just to get competent fly | ing instructors, who are darn scarce these days.
 LOANS AND PLANES SAFE That these have been good loans is indicated by the record. Out of approximately 160 of them made in the firts F months this policy has been in effect, more than 30 30 have been repaid in full, and not one is in arrears.
 The safety record in operation of these planes is impressive = only one fatality for each five million get that - five million hours of flying, in spite of the fact that there now are more than 82,OO0 pri- vate license pilots buzzing around in 22,e0O licensed planes, all over the country. This amazing safety record is reflected by the fact that insurance rates on small planes have dropped more than 300 per cent-from $35 to $7.5O.
 What is happening right before your eyes is that the country. is actually being converted to the fly ing age when flivver planes will 1, be relatively as common as fliv- vers used to be.
 When the Civilian Pilot Training Program was launched experiment tally back in 1889, it looked silly. Three hundred boys were picked for courses in 10 schools. They did all right. Congress appropriated the money to train 10000. Then it raised the ante to $37 million, re- sulting in the big program in cp- eration today, which is largely re- sponsible for increasing the num- Der of licensed pilots to near the 100, ,000 mark.
 2,OOO STUDENTS THIS FALL CPTP courses run four months each, making it possible to turn out three classes 8 year. Summer l sessions in some $40 cooperating schools will soon be closeing, and the fall term will start in 500
 schools in September with 12,00C
 student pilots in attendance. The
 reduction in the number of schools
 is accounted for by the increased emphasis which will be given to
 secondary training for defense. l These students will get in the primary training 72 hours of ground school and 38 hours in the air
 Those who pass will be permitted
 to take secondary training, which gives them an additional l08 hours of ground school, plus 80 hours in the air. From there, the students can go right into the Army CT
 Navy training, if they can pass
 mental and physical examinations Or they can go on to take the cross
 country courses of another o06
 hours ground school and 45 hours
 flying, and go on from there to
 receive an instructors license. Out of all this training comes the reservoir of pilot material the
 armed services are yelling for. The
 side issue is that here are being
 trained the people who will fly tie private planes when peace returns
 to the world, and the country can
 have fun.
 Originally, the CPTP program
 called for training one girl pilot
 for every nine boys. With the em-
 phasis on defense, and with the
 need for military pilots, the girls were cut out of the picture. They're