Bourchinal, Bob Hoover and Tom Peterson in Zero 3 Bravo

I finally finished Zero 3 Bravo and quite enjoyed it.

Author Mariana Gosnell is a journalist, so she had no need of a ghost writer to put this book together. It's well written and keeps your interest. It's not a saga of a woman overcoming barriers to become a pilot, but rather simply of a pilot flying across country, and the people she meets in all the small airports she visits. She does share a couple of anecdotes that only a female pilot would probably notice or think about - a few times when she was greeted at an airport with condescension or surprise, a time a married woman confided to her how trapped she'd felt in her marriage ever since she'd learned to fly, but over all it's just the stories a pilot-pilot would share.

Mariana is knowledgeable about the wide variety of planes and of pilots. She meets people with interesting stories to tell, for example she was present when Bryan Allen powered the Gossamer Condor around the figure 8 course which won its designers the Kremer Prize.

She meets a couple of Midgetts - two children in a family of Midgetts that have served in the Coast Guard since the late 1800s. (Although they are apparently a well-known family, and used to have news articles written about them each year when the had a family reunion, they don't seem to have a presence on the web, but it's really an inspiring story. Over 150 Midgetts have served in the Coast Guard in the past several decades. (Read about the USCG Midgett http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgcMidgett/history.asp : it is named for the late Chief Warrant Officer John Allen MIDGETT, Jr. - born in 1876 in Rodanthe, North Carolina and served for nearly forty years with the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the Coast Guard. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for his heroic rescue of 36 crewmen from the torpedoed British tanker MIRLO in 1918. Bos'n Midgett and his lifeboat crew rescued the entire crew, despite rough seas and flames from the tankers cargo of refined oil and gasoline. J.A. Midgett, Jr. was also one of seven of Midgett family members to have been awarded the nations highest award for saving a life - the Gold Lifesaving Medal. More than 150 living members of the Midgett family have made the Coast Guard a career, including more than thirty still on active duty.

She also flew in just as the Reno Air Races were being prepared - and mentions Bob Hoover, but doesn't really go into detail about who he really was - just mentioned him as an aerobatic pilot known as the "Flying Brain Surgeon" because of the precision of his routine.

She also spent some time with Isaac Newton Burchinal, Jr., (called Junior) the owner of the Flying Tigers airport, which was full of World War II planes which he taught people to fly. He called it Warbird School. Although she admired him for his pilot skills, there were some personal quirks she did not care for - she paints a no-flaws-withheld portrait of the man. (And as a matter of fact, Burchinal just died about a year ago. There's a message board where people discussed his legacy. (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/paris-tx/TN703UO1TLNO0UVIL

And she also spends time with Tom Peterson, the pilot who flew presidential candidate Jimmy Carter around Georgia until he was elected. (Although the book was published in 1993, she's detailed a 3-month trip she took in the late 1970s.) (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911856,00.html)

Anyway, one thing that always annoys me with memoirs and travel tales of this nature are that they rarely contain indexes. So, I usually end up making one myself, and I have done so in this case. It's nothing fancy - just the names she mentions throughout the book. If you're interested in reading the book and want to see specifically whom she talks about, or if you're an aviation researcher and simply collect indexes, you can download this index here:

http://volcanoseven.com/YouFlyGirl/IndexPDFs/Zero3BravoIndex.pdf

Women in Aviation from Sport's Illustrated's Vault

The SI Vault is online, and there are a few - a very few - articles on women pilots in its recesses.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1129946/index.htm
Across America With the Powder Puffs, by Bill Maudlin. July 18, 1955

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1071701/index.htm
Up and Up Goes Jerrie Cobb (one of the Mercury 13), August 29, 1960


http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1072729/index.htm
Fiance of Danger - a profile of 86-year old Marie Marvingt, June 26, 1961

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1085090/index.htm
Fly Away On Ladies Day, (Profile of Powder Puff Derby and its Silver Anniversary) July 19, 1971

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1087619/index.htm
With A Huff and a Puff (Profile, Powder Puff Derby), July 30, 1973

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121644/index.htm
She Flies Through The Air With the Greatest of Ease: A profile of Edna Gardner Whyte, January 16, 1984

So many books, so little time

I blogged a coupe of days ago that I'd received the book, Captain Gramma to review... (she's also going to give me an interview)

Today I just finished Zero 3 Bravo: Solo Across America in a Small Plane, by Mariana Gosnell. Gosnell flew across America in the late 1970s, the book wasn't published until 1993, but it makes for good if rather melancholic reading. Who in today's economy could afford to fly cross country, even if there was still enough uncontrolled air space to make it worth while.

I've actually got dozens of older books to read - I've been picking up lots of used books from Amazon.com, sadly, most of them are "de-accessioned library books" - meaning I suddenly own a book which now, hundreds of people going to that library will never be able to read. I'm never sure if they de-accession books once they reach a certain age, or if they track th ose that haven't been checked out in five years or something, and get rid of those...

Anyway...I'll be doing lots of book reviews and articles in the next few days...

I'll also start up a library of Women in Aviation books, so anyone who'd like to borrow books from me may do so...

Captain Gramma: Single Mom to Sky High

Just received this book: Captain Gramma: Single Mom to Sky High, by Nancy Welz Aldrich, for review, and will be reading it and reviewing it within the next couple of days.

Here's the backmatter:

A woman pilot? Everyone laughed at her. Everyone told her she was crazy. But Nancy Welz Aldrich, a 37-year old single mother of two, decided, once and for all, that she was going after her lifelong dream. With little money but plenty of perseverance, ldrich learned to fly. She worked as a travelling instructor and ferried airplanes before she was eventually hired by United Airlines.

In Captain Gramma,, she candidly tells how she rose through the ranks at United amidst great sexism and animosity. Best of all, Aldrich tells her story with plenty of humourous and shocking anecdotes, from taming unruly passengers to braving an emergency landing to sharing layover apartments with unexpected roommates.

Gi behins tbe scenes on an airline strike, ride in the cockpit, and feel the pull of flight simulators along the way with Aldrich's life journey.

Winners of the Powder Puff Derby (1947 - 1997)

The first Powder Puff Derby was held in 1929. There was one fatality - Marvel Crosson (the cause of her death is a mystery, but most experts conjecture there was a faulty vent allowing Co2 buidup in the cockpit, which disoriented her and caused her to crash), and the winner was Louise Thaden.

The race was re-inaugurated in 1947, and lasted for 30 years. There were no fatalities during these 29 races (1974 was cancelled due to the national fuel crisis).

March 10-13, 1947. 2 aircraft entered, 3 pilots.Carolyn West won first place. Her copilot was Beatrice Medes. Dianna Bixby never managed to take off, thanks to plane trouble.

June 1-4, 1948. 6 aircraft (7 pilots). Winner: Frances Nolde.

May 31 - June 3, 1949. 16 aircraft (27 pilots). Winner: Lauretta Foy and Sue Kindred.

June 11-16, 1950. 33 aircraft (51 pilots) Winner: Jean Parker and Boots Seymour.

August 15-19, 1951. 44 aircraft, (77 pilots). Winner: Claire McMillen and Frances Bera

July 4-9, 1952. 41 aircraft, (68 pilots) Winner: Shirley Blocki Froyd and Martha Baechle

July 3-7, 1953. 49 aircraft, (90 pilots) Winner: Frances Bera and Marcella Drake

July 3-6, 1954. 51 aircraft, 95 pilots. Winner: Ruth Deerman and Ruby Hays.

July 2-6, 1955. 47 aircraft, 90 pilots. Winner: Frances Bera and Edna Bower.

July 7 - 10, 1956. 50 aircraft, 87 pilots. Winner: Frances Bera and Edna Bower

July 6-10, 1957. 49 aircraft, 89 pilots. Winner: Alice Roberts and Iris Critchell.

July 4-8, 1958. 69 aircraft, 129 pilots. Winner: Frances Bera and Evelyn Kelly.

July 4-8, 1959. 66 aircraft, 129 pilots. Winner: Aileen SAunders and Jerelyn Cassell

July 9-13, 1960. 85 aircraft, 157 pilots. Winner: Aileen SAunders and June Douglas.

July 8-12, 1961. 101 aircraft, 201 pilots. Winner: Frances Bera.

July 7-11, 1962. 54 aircraft, 99 pilots. Winner: Frances Bera and Edna Bower

July 13-17, 1963. 47 aircraft, 84 pilots. Winner: Virginia Britt and Lee Winfield

July 4-8, 1964. 61 aircraft, 111 pilots. Winner: Mary Ann Noah and Mary Aikins

July 3-7, 1965. 79 aircraft, 148 pilots. Winner: Mary Ann Noah and Mary Aikins

July 2-5, 1966. 91 aircraf, 165 pilots. Winner: Bernice Steadman and Mary Clark

July 8-11, 1967. 76 aircraft, 145 pilots. Winner: Judy Wagner.

July 6-9, 1968. 81 aircraft, 150 pilors. Winner: Margaret Mead and Billie Herrin.

July 4-7, 1969. 95 aircraft, 172 pilots. Winner: Mara K. Culp

July 3-7, 1970. 98 aircraft, 181 pilots. Winner: Margaret Mead and Susan Oliver.

July 5-8, 1971. 150 aircraft, 288 pilots. Winner: Gini Richardson.

July 7-10, 1972. 105 aircraft, 198 pilots. Winner: Marian Banks and Dottie Sanders.

July 13-16, 1973. 108 aircraft, 191 pilots. Winner: Marian Burje and Ruth Hildebrand.

1974 - due to national fuel crisis, the Powder Puff Derby was cancelled in this year.

July 4-7, 1975. 102 aircraft, 187 pilots. Winner: Trina Jarish

July 9-12, 1976. 200 aircraft, 360 pilots. Winner: Trina Jarish

July 1-4, 1977. 150 aircraft. 331 pilots and passengers. Winner: Patricia Udall and Nan Gaylor

Sweet Vibrations: Discovering the First Deaf Pilot: Nellie Zabel Willhite

Way back in the 1920s.... or heck, even up until the 1970s, it was hard enough for a woman to get training to become a pilot at all. Women's roles were pretty firmly fixed and even though they'd proved time and again that they could fly with the big boys, obstacles were placed in their way. (Over a thousand women flew every type of plane imaginable during WWII, as WASP... but could they get jobs as airline pilots after the war? Nope... not until the 1970s.)

So imagine how difficult it must have been to be a woman, and deaf, and want to be a pilot, back in the 1920s. Well, Nellie Zabel Willhite managed it.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Sweet-Vibrations-Discovering-the-Life-of-Deaf-Pilot-Nellie-Zabel-Willhite

I'll be doing an in-depth article for my webzine Winged Victory: Women in Aviation, but thought I'd share this little saga of first discovery with you all.

And here's a book written by a deaf man who wanted to become a pilot in middle age:
Booklist:
A book editor at a struggling big-city daily learned to fly away from his worries, and this cross-continental travelogue is the wonderful result. In previous books, Kisor has written about his deafness (What's That Pig Outdoors?, 1990) and about traveling across America by train (Zephyr, 1994); here he melds the two themes. He tells of an aerial feat from 1911 that inspired him: the first coast-to-coast trip by plane, an achievement that further attracted Kisor because of his affinity with the pilot, who was deaf. Intending to reenact that event, Kisor learned to fly, got a license, bought a Cessna 150, consulted with a prior reenactor, and began his own odyssey. The most tangible quality of the trip is the way Kisor relates sensations of sight and vibration in flight and, once on the ground, his process of communicating with the hearing. Kisor touched wheels as near as possible to the landing spots of that 1911 pilot; as he clambers out to refuel and converse, he collects human-interest stories about the idiosyncratic people who scratch out a living at remote landing strips: fuelers, proprietors, mechanics, cab drivers--a gallery of contemporary characters of Americana. The reader gladly occupies Kisor's right-hand seat, admiring the view, listening to his descriptions and opinions, and imbibing, as Kisor puts it, the "ineffable, almost undefinable impulse to fly." Spouses worried that their middle-aged mates might head for the local airstrip should not let them know about Kisor's memorable journey. Gilbert Taylor

Yvonne Trueman, only Bahrainian-licensed pilot

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Yvonne Trueman, the 70+-year old woman who is the only person to hold a pilot's license issued by the island micro-nation of Bahrain. (Here is a verrrry interesting article about Bahrain which everybody should read - talks about the people, the ruling family, the terror threat)

I just discovered today that I had neglected to include a link to the article I'd been quoting, which gave all her qualifications and accomplishments.

I've written up biographies of her and Sheila Scott (British aviatrix, who flew solo around the world three times, twice in a Piper Commanche, once in a Piper Aztec) and they are posted at the Women Aviators Wiki.

http://womenaviators.org/wiki/index.php?title=Yvonne_Trueman
http://womenaviators.org/wiki/index.php?title=Sheila_Scott