rough draft of my book, "Have Goggles, Will Travel"

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 77
Friday, August 12
Illinois to Iowa
John Crum flew Martha to Mount Sterling, Illinois in his 1946 Aeronca Champ. M met his family and the newspaper reporters—landed on a grass strip at Brown Country Airpark. A CBS Channel affiliate, named Amy from Quincy met them at departure from Beardstown, Illinois.





John Crum called here at 11:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. his time) to tell me of his meeting Martha and what a fine and intelligent person she is. [Ha, guess I fooled him.] He is a Psychologist at a Mental Health Facility and took the day off. They flew to Blakesburg, Iowa just southwest of Ottumwa. [See book introduction for more of this flight.]

Blakesburg is the home of The Antique Airplane Association. President Bob Taylor gave M a tour of the hangar museum and is helping find a ride west.

Joe Pundzak will fly her in his Twin Beech H-18 tomorrow. Martha slept in the First Aid Room in one of the hangars of Antique Airfield this night.

[Having the little First Aid Room on the airfield for my hotel room was a fun experience. I had the whole airfield to myself with not another soul around. Around Midnight I went out and danced around on the hillside under the bright moon.]

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 78
Saturday, August 13
Iowa to South Dakota
At sunrise, Les Gaskill, Bob Taylor’s friend, flew Martha to Ottumwa, Iowa, northeast a few miles in his Piper Cub J-3. They landed at Ottumwa Industrial Airpark.

[Les was so nice to encourage and allow me to fly the entire flight from engine start, taxi, take-off, cross-country, landing, to engine shut down. He told me afterwards he never once touched the controls - said he didn't want to. I was sure I could get us through the air to where we were going, but wasn't so sure of my taildragger ground skills. Accomplishing a good take-off and landing did wonders for my confidence. Extra thanks to you, Les, for believing in me and allowing me this great privilege!]

A few minutes later, Joe Pundzak picked Martha up in his Twin Beech H-18. They flew 170 mph. to Mitchell Field, Mitchell, South Dakota in 2 hrs and 20 minutes. He is in advertising and magazine publishing. Wants to put together an Air Adventurers Club magazine for Martha at his expense - Martha would do the artwork, etc. Joe’s business is in Des Moines.

[During my flight with Joe, I looked out my right window and could see North Dakota about ten miles away according to my map. I asked Joe if there was any way we could possibly divert just a bit and make a landing there on our way to South Dakota, but he was limited for time, so we couldn't. He suggested I ask my next pilot, Norma.]

After Joe Pundzak dropped Martha off and departed Mitchell Field, Dwayne Wright of Wright Brothers Aviation (not kidding) who has an aircraft maintenance shop on the field took Martha to Mc Donald’s drive thru for lunch.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 78 continued
Saturday, August 13
Iowa to South Dakota

When Martha and Duane Wright returned from McDonald’s, Norma Hellmann was waiting by her plane. She had landed while M and Duane were gone and she was in a hurry to get back in the air to fly home as she was worried that afternoon thunderstorms might crop up. [I boldly asked Norma if she would mind taking me another forty miles northeast on over to North Dakota before heading back west across South Dakota. She wasn't too keen on that idea.] Norma flew M to Sturgis, South Dakota 3 hours 20 minutes in her 1947 Cessna 120 silver and red.



[As our flight progressed toward where we were headed, I was amazed looking down on what appeared to be a long trail of ants on the road, all heading toward a busy ant colony with more smaller colonies in the outskirts. They weren't ants at all, but motorcycles all heading to the little old west town of Sturgis, South Dakota and biker campgrounds for their annual get together. I'd never seen anything like it!]

Norma’s friend is Laverne Kramer of Deadwood, South Dakota or Nemo, South Dakota and both are subscribers of Lee Spencer’s newspaper. Martha stayed at Norma’s home in Black Hawk, South Dakota.

[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 mountain 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.

Originally Posted by FlygirlAce

Sturgis to Billings ------------------------
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.

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!

[crankcase]

I've only seen photos (and movies, "North by Northwest") of Rushmore up close. Your wide angle view is so interesting and unusual!
CC

[AAC Cadet Leader]

flieg and crankcase,
thanks for your compliments on my mount rushmore photos. luverne's little private airstrip was the nearest one to that american icon and he knew how to get in close. and i saw very little general aviation traffic out in the winds of south dakota, so i know i had a truly privileged air tour of it and of many other best places in america!

killian,
is 130 KB's a lot? i'll bet all the photos add a bunch more. and we're not even to the halfway point yet. yoy!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom’s Log
Day 79 continued
Sunday, August 14
South Dakota to Montana
At 7 p.m., Larry Larson flew into Billings Logan Field in his 1947 Piper Super Cruiser (red and beige) to pick Martha up and fly her to his own private airstrip, called “Ye Olde Molt Aerodrome” by in a tiny settlement called Molt, Montana. She stayed this night in “Larson’s Lodge,” a small, rustic cabin-guest house on their land and had a lovely evening with his family - wife, Lalonnie, two daughters and a son.

[At the dinner table, the Larson’s twelve-year old daughter told me the names of all thirty-two people that live in their little town of Molt, Montana - amazing! After dinner, the family gave me a t-shirt with their logo, “Little Bumpy Airlines” and added all of their autographs to it, including the dog’s.

Today was Scott Larson’s fifth birthday, and I felt privileged to attend his family birthday party. He entertained us outside at sunset with his new battery-operated toy airplane on a wire. This is a very happy and close-knit family. I'd been an orphaned kid, I’d wish for a family like this.

Thier “Larson’s Lodge,” is located on about forty feet away from their family home and it reminded me of the cabin described in “Walden Pond” by Henry David Thoreau. It was sparsely furnished and I wanted to move into it forever. On the back of the door hung a guest register where former guests had left their comments and thanks to the Larson’s. I added mine to the list.]

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Pipeline Flight August 14, 15, & 16, 1988.
Below is a copy of the 12th and 13th pages of the 17 page letter I wrote to Gordon Baxter upon completing my journey. These two pages tell about one of my favorite flights -the three day long tour from Molt, Montana to Pasco, Washington with my 87th aviator, Larry Larson, a pipeline pilot.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 80
Monday, August 15
Montana to Washington
Martha flew with Larry Larson from Ye Olde Molt Aerodrome to Edsall International (a private grass strip), in Bozeman, Montana where Wayne Edsall flew Martha in his open cockpit 1932 Fleet biplane, to Missoula, Montana.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Day 80, August 15, 1988, 9:15 a.m. Written at 500’ altitude, in the front seat of Wayne Edsall's 1932 Fleet open-cockpit biplane, near Bozeman, Montana.

Trapped in Time

Life is but a dream they say
so we can dream it too
believing we are
trapped in time in 1932

Together we're aloft
high above the Central Plains
cross the flatlands as we race along
with speeding coal trains

Over to the Rockies
we’ll blast up a mountainside
skim the top, soar over its ridge
cruise down the other side

Breezing through the clouds and sky
we’ve never been so free
reach out into the wind
and almost touch the trees

On up the Ruby River
sneaking 'neath a bridge I know
and one more in Missoula
near the line of Idaho

We can't stay up forever
we’re almost out of gas
there’s a field on the other side
of that-there mountain pass

Keep this dream inside of you
because if you do, it’s true
It’s true that we are flying
back in 1932!