Quote:
Originally Posted by AAC Cadet Leader
Mom's Log
Day 79
Sunday, August 14
South Dakota to Montana
Norma and Martha drove to Luverne Kraemer’s home in Nemo, South Dakota. There were cows walking on the road on the way to Luverne’s home with a most beautiful grass airstrip. It was formerly a public airstrip, now private, and the only one in the Black Hills. It is called Paradise Valley.
 
[i'm saving my very best shot, a close-up eye to eye view of the Presidents, for the printed version of this book]
He flew Martha around Mt. Rushmore (Washington-Lincoln-Jefferson-Theodore Roosevelt) in his yellow 1940 Cub. They saw rock formations in the Black Hills near Needles Mountains. One of the needles is the tallest mountains in South Dakota.
Luverne afterwards flew Martha back to Sturgis, South Dakota and Norma flew Martha to Billings, Montana in her Cessna. It took 3 ½ hours [partly because I fell asleep during the flight and poor Norma on only her second cross-country flight - her first, being the day before when she came to get me in Mitchell South Dakota - lost track of her landmarks out in the middle of nowhere. When I woke up, she didn't know where we were. So when we spotted some big power lines, we turned northward, as I recall, to follow them, figuring they'd take us to a city. They did. They brought us to Billings, Montana.] They landed at a Corporate Commercial Flight Center and Martha might stay the night in the air conditioned FBO.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by FlygirlAce
Sturgis to Billings
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On the post about the flight from Sturgis to Billings, MT, Norma was not lost. Visibility was awful because of the forest fires blanketing the route with smoke. This was certainly not Norma's first cross-country to Billings or anywhere else for that matter. There is a large segment of the route that there is no VOR coverage, but when it was picked back up (the Sheridan VOR) navigation then became a piece of cake. We were off a direct course of Sturgis to Billings, but certainly matched hopscotching between VOR's going a more southerly route through Wyoming. Norma gave you a wonderful, long flight with fuel to spare. Be careful about your picking on her piloting skills. You sound very ungrateful to a hostess that flew you across several states, gave you a good bed, good food, and a washing machine to do your laundry.
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Months later, after my journey's completion, when I tallied up all the miles and statistics, I discovered that Norma Hellman had flown the farthest of any of my pilots to come get me (330) miles in each direction from Sturgis to Mitchell, SD. She was a true heroine! Perhaps I misunderstood her. I thought she told me that she had never flown such a long cross-country flight before that, especially solo, and that she had just recently earned her private pilot certificate.
Norma indeed was an excellent hostess and graciously opened her home to me, fed me and gave me a comfy bed for the night, and allowed me to use her washer and dryer. She also took me to Sturgis Airport and introduced me to several of her airport friends, and she drove me through Sturgis during the annual bike week, which I had never heard of before - it was an amazing sight to see so many motorcycles in one little town!
Out there in those big, wide plains states with few landmarks, seemingly endless miles between crossroads, and vague signal coverage between VORs, plus the added smoky conditions, it would be easy for any veteran VFR pilot to get lost or become unsure of their exact location. Had I not felt comfortable with Norma's skills as a pilot, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to doze off during our flight. There were only two other flights on my journey, during which I fell asleep.
I will have to go back and add more of this to this entry for the book. Thank you for your input, FlygirlAce! Please give Norma and Luverne a big hug for me. They are both very special people and both heroes to me. They also came to see my presentation at Oshkosh 2008 - what a thrill it was for me to see them there in my audience!