Flygirl

The next morning, all of the women are up early, eager to begin flying. After breakfast, trucks take them to the auxiliary fields where they will have their first day of training. Their instructor is a man named Happy Martin, a civilian rather than a member of the military. As he introduces himself, he warns the women:“I can make sure that you still know your place in this man’s army” (90).

Instructor Martin asks for a volunteer to fly first and everyone raises their hands. He selects Lily and tells her to get in the train, but she insists on running a flight check, checking the plane before they take off. Instructor Martin looks unhappy—he was hoping to trick Lily into skipping the flight check so that he could correct her. After the flight check, they take off. But as they make a loop, Lily falls out of the plane. She uses her parachute, but Ida and Patsy run to her to make sure she’s okay. Lily says that she must have not secured her seatbelt correctly due to the baggy uniform, and Patsy and Ida quickly warn all of the women not to make the same mistake.

Ida flies next. Instructor Martin takes off and then passes the controls over to Ida.