New Delhi to Calcutta, India · · PAGE 10.

April 6, 1964:  She had another easy flight the next day from Delhi to Calcutta, India.  It is the first time she is on a "domestic" flight inside one country.  Jerrie followed the Ganges River for about 850 miles on the way to Calcutta to see the "teeming life" in the villages on the banks of the river.  The closest big city on the Ganges is about 75 miles to the East of the New Delhi airport.  I picked this spot as good as any near New Delhi to begin her route of following the Ganges River.  She could have joined the river route further south of the location seen here.  She did not mention where she started flying with the river heading down stream.

This map of India came from the internet as you can see, but it does provide the big picture of where she flew on this day from New Delhi to Calcutta.  On this map, Calcutta is spelled as "Kolkata."

She did not get a chance to fly over the Taj Mahal on the banks of the Yamura River.  It was in a prohibited area near Agra.  Google Earth provides a walking tour showing many photos taken on the grounds of the Taj Mahal.  You can see them on your computer.  Here is how to do the walk.  There are no street views for India, but there are walking views here.  Drag the pedestrian to various places on the Taj Mahal property.  If there is a walking route in that area, you will see a photo similar to the ones below this overview image.  Depending on your screen size and resolution, you may have to grab the slider bar at the bottom of your browser window to see all of the image here.  The little blue squares are photos taken by the public when visiting areas on the map.  You can click on any of them and a new window willl open to the photos from that link on the screen.

This is one of the views you can see on your own by following the yellow lines that appear after you drag the little pedestrian over the "big picture" looking down on the Taj Mahal area.  When Google Earth puts you in this screen below, move your mouse over the yellow lines and click to move along them.  You can click on the image anywhere to drag with your mouse to see the view in any direction at each stop along the lines.  This photo is looking NORTH since the "N" is at the top of the circle.

The view below is looking WEST from a point near the view point of the image seen above.  You can tell that by looking at the "compass circle" in the upper right corner of the image.  The "N" always points NORTH.  If the "N" is on the right side of the "compass", then the view ahead is looking WEST.

Jerrie mentioned the holy city of Benares, now known as Varanasi, India.   The course line below follows the Ganges River beginning with the two dots that have no labels on them.

Here is a Google Earth aerial view flying over the river at Benares.  The next image below this one was posted near the push pin below next to my black label "Benares".

This seems to be a popular location on the Ganges River at Benares.  I found two different pictures from Links on Google Earth.  This one has the best detail and may require you to "slide" the view on your browser to see all of the photo.

This view gives the big picture of the Ganges River in the area of Varanasi (Benares).  North is up in the image below.  The red line is my presumed track of Jerrie's flight down the river on her way to Calcutta (Kolkata).

Jerrie spent the night in this hotel in Calcutta.  What you see here is the oldest part of the hotel.  There are a couple of new buildings that have been added.

The old hotel that was built in 1830 has been renovated, and new additions have been added as you can see in this modern photo.

More photos and information can be found via this web link: http://www.thelalit.com/the-lalit-great-eastern-kolkata/    Make sure you read the ABOUT HOTEL link found on the hotel home page.

Here is a "big picture" showing the Dumdum Airport where Jerrie landed and it shows Calcutta.  The airport is less than nine miles from the hotel.

This closer view of the hotel location shows how close it is to the heart of the old city by the river.  I turned off some of the Google Earth features to give a less cluttered image seen here.

Here is the modern airport for Calcutta.  When I was there in 1982, there was only one runway, which is now over 9,000 feet long.  Jerrie would have used that runway.  There is a newer parallel runway that is about 11,000 feet long.  I was on a Boeing 737 Indian airliner taking off from here that ingested a large bird in the right engine just after takeoff, probably at about 2,000 feet MSL.  The American pilot did everything correctly and landed the airplane on same runway coming from the left side of this image to make his landing.  With only one engine working, it was interesting to see how he used partial power on reverse thrust, and still managed to keep the airplane near the runway center line.  The plane had all coach seats with only ONE empty seat, and it was behind me.  The flight to Silchar was cancelled for the day.  We had better luck the next day.  I did not look at the airplane registration number.  They probably brought a different one to Calcutta for the flight the next day.  This time, ALL the seats were full, but there were no birds to avoid on departure.

The local Cessna dealer took care of Charlie for the night.  She asked about getting some repairs for the brakes and the motor for the H.F. radio antenna, but they did not have the parts.  She did not mention fuel in this chapter, so that must have been a service from the Cessna dealer.  Jerrie talked about tea time with members of the Aero Club in an air-conditioned room at the airport when she arrived.   She spent part of the afternoon shopping at the bazaar and the evening with her hosts from the Aero Club.  She had time for some sight seeing before returning to her air-conditioned room at the Great Eastern Hotel.  She did take time to write some letters to home which could easily be forwarded by the US Consulate office in Calcutta.