Mom’s Log
Day 4
Tuesday, May 31
Alabama to Mississippi
Martha calling from Mississippi 10 p.m. Jay Smith flew Martha from Mobile, Alabama at 11 a.m. to Meridian, Mississippi in a 1954 Cessna 170. There she learned about Al & Fred Key and their historic endurance flight over Meridian, Mississippi in a Curtiss Robin monoplane.
[In June of 1935, the two brothers named Fred and Al Key set a world record for endurance in the air, by taking turns sleeping and flying in shifts in a borrowed Curtiss Robin monoplane, named “Ole Miss” that they re-fitted with a 150 gallon fuel tank and a catwalk framework around the front of the plane. While aloft, one of them would do the flying while the other would actually brave the wind and elements a few times a day, walking outside of the cockpit on the catwalk, adding oil to the engine and fueling the tanks from a gas hose that was lowered down to them from a similar plane. Food and other supplies were also lowered to them by a rope. The two brothers remained in the air over Meridian, Mississippi doing this for 27 days and nights! When they finally landed on July 1, 1935 at 6:06 p.m., a crowd of thirty to forty thousand people on the ground cheered them and the Meridian Airport was re-named “Key Field.” Their world endurance record still stands today.]
TV Channel 11 taped Martha at Key Field at 1 p.m. and a woman newspaper reporter interviewed her. Mark Blackwell, pilot gave Martha a tour of downtown Meridian and they had dinner at an 1870 restaurant called Weidmann’s famous for their Black Bottom pie!
On the six o’clock local news, the television station in downtown Meridian did a 3-minute live interview of Martha in their studio.
She and Mark Blackwell returned to the airport and met with Donald Fairchild with his 1961 Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Mark sat in back and they flew to Pontotoc, Mississippi. It was a very hazy, calm flight at dusk into dark. It was a bit scary on their short final approach. It was a night landing and Martha thought the plane was much higher in the flare-out than it actually was.
[My eyes were playing tricks on me and it looked as if the plane was about ten feet above the ground during the flare, judging from our angle to the runway lights going by. I braced myself for a hard slam of a landing and had a very spooky feeling, thinking we were about to drop it in from a high flare. I was very relieved, though puzzled at my misjudgment when Mr. Fairchild greased the landing. That night-time optical illusion of thinking we were much higher than we actually were happened to me only once before – when I was a student pilot practicing some of my first night landings with my instructor, Steve Hale, at Akron Municipal Airport back in the summer of 1978.]
Day 5
Wednesday, June 1
Mississippi to Arkansas 11:15 PM
Left Pontotoc –Ch 4 news crew and 4 reporters interviewed Martha giving four pilots Air Adventurers Wings (silver) and taking the AAC pledge. Pilot
Fred McCall flew from Pontotoc to an airfield called Twinkletown Municipal in Walls, Mississippi (near Tennessee-Arkansas border) in his 1946 Aeronca Champ.
Newsmen were there taking photos. Steve Prindle sent a fax to news people. James Reeves was waiting and he and Martha and Fred McCall went to lunch at a little hometown café with home cooking and talked planes. James Reeves flew Martha to Little Rock, Arkansas in his 1956 Champ.
Martha had dinner at Red Lobster with Emmy Hall and couple that owns FBO on field. Martha is staying the night in Mrs. Emmy Halls’ condominium. She is feisty lady in her 60’s who owns a plant that manufactures pressure oil tanks. Emmy Hall was a pioneer aviatrix who taught many WWII pilots to fly together with 10 other women instructors. She is a 99 and has many antique aviation contacts in Bartlesville, Okalahoma. Her friend Kay Newth organizes air races.
[Mrs. Hall shared her wonderfully interesting aviation scrapbook with me on her front porch the next morning, before I left. She had an old invitation to a banquet with her name printed nearby Roscoe Turner’s on a list of dignitaries.]
Day 6
Thursday, June 2
Arkansas and Oklahoma
Bob Perry - 1946 Fairchild - flew Martha from North Little Rock to Fort Smith, Arkansas on border of Oklahoma. It was a one and a half hour flight over river at approximately 400’ above ground level with hills on both sides. Fantastic ride. David Taylor KPOM Channel 24 Fort Smith, Arkansas and landed at 10:30 AM – 3 network news channels were there and 3 newspaper reporters, approximately 10 people on ground. (They arrived 45 minutes late) (Bob and Martha) William Moore, an original correspondent, a quadriplegic pilot and instructor welcomed her. He designed and had patented controls (aircraft?) for quadriplegic individuals. Martha presented him with one of the ten pins reserved for extraordinary support people. He gave the next pilot $35 to buy her the “best lunch in Tulsa” since the weather was deteriorating and he encouraged her to fly on soon. He gave her roses at the airport and said that he had a cake at his house he had baked for her, but suggested she keep flying in order to beat the weather.
Wolf Grulkey, an editorial cartoonist and printer in his Aeronca 1946 flew Martha to Tulsa, Oklahoma to Harvey Young Field. On the ground to greet them was one TV station, two newspaper people and Mike Huffman, an acquaintance of Martha’s from EAA’s Sun ’n Fun Florida fly-in.
[insert photos of wolf grulkey, kent felkins and harvey young field]
also photo of tulsa fbo - window guys waving]
Martha met Kent Felkins, a fireman for a late lunch. He will fly Martha to Bartlesville tomorrow. Kent drove Martha to dry cleaners where she dropped off her antique jacket, skirt, blouse and jodhpurs. No charge for dry cleaning - donation of services for Martha from any member of the International Fabricare Institute. The clothes will be ready in the morning. A woman employee there is sewing the rip in Martha’s skirt. Martha said she is thoroughly exhausted and put on her blue jeans, t-shirt, and plain shoes to take a rest from having to explain to everyone why she’s dressed in vintage pilot clothing.
[After dropping off my clothes at the dry cleaners, Kent took me to a sports bar. The news segment filmed earlier in the day at Harvey Young Field when Wolf Grulkey dropped me off there in his Aeronca came up on the TV set over the bar – it was sort of funny to see myself on TV while we ate our sandwiches. I'm usually gone to the next place by the time the news stories come on. Afterwards, I asked Kent to take me to nearby Tulsa International Airport so I can make more phone calls from their pay phone because I'm meeting Mike Huffman for breakfast there in the morning and Kent thought the FBO there might have a pilot lounge where I could sleep.]
She made several calls to next possible pilots from the lobby of the Tulsa International Airport. One man at the airport asked her if the phone was stuck to her ear. Kent will meet Martha in the late morning back at Harvey Young Airfield. Tonight she is sleeping on a couch in the locked office of the manager who runs the FBO at nearby Tulsa International Airport. But he doesn’t know she’s in there. The line crew told her it would be okay, and that the manager wouldn’t mind if she slept on his sofa. She said she feels safe and comfortable, but completely exhausted.