Final Flights in the USA and HOME · · PAGE 15

April 16, 1964:  Since she was on a trip around the world, many news services followed her progress as you can see from this photo taken at Oakland.

Jerrie checks the gas cap on the smaller of the two ferry tanks mounted inside the cabin of the Cessna 180, N1538C "Charlie".  This photo was taken just before her departure from Oakland, California heading for Tucson, Arizona.  She was in the US mainland now and flew VFR without a flight plan and made up her mind about landing at Tucson while in the air, not before takeoff.

The last two days were all  in the US mainland, with a flight from Oakland, California to Tucson, Arizona on the first day.  She wanted to get some sleep and just be herself with no distractions.

April 17, 1964: On the last day of her flight she started in Tucson, Arizona and flew to El Paso where she needed to have her stop there certified by an observer for the National Aeronautics Association as part of her world record documentation.  She then flew from El Paso, Texas to Memphis,Tennessee in visual meteorological conditions (VMC) similar to my trip back from LOE5 in October 2005.  Here is my photo of El Capitan, the tallest point in Texas seen on my PAGE 183.  It was daytime as Jerrie flew past this site with similar weather as shown here.  El Capitan is about 90 miles East of El Paso not far south of the New Mexico state line.

In her case, she flew VFR from El Paso to Arkansas before descending down from 11,500 feet MSL to about 1000 feet above the ground and passing a weather front that was moving south near Memphis.  She made a precautionary fuel stop around sunset at Bowling Green, Kentucky before her final leg of the trip to Columbus where she began the record-setting flight around the world.  A night landing was made at the end of her journey back at Columbus, Ohio.  This Google Earth screen capture shows what Jerrie would have seen as she began the high-speed pass down the runway where her flight began 29 days earlier.  This was a full-speed run to get the official time for her record-setting flight around the world.  My scenery files are what I used to create this night view.


This Skyvector chart shows her approximate route across the USA.

April 17, 1964: That magic moment just after the end of the flight that evening is celebrated at  the airport in Columbus, Ohio where her trip began.

Brigadier General Lassiter along with about 10,000 other folks met Jerrie when she landed back a Columbus, Ohio.

April 23, 1964: The photo below was taken in a TWA airliner after her arrival from Chicago on the ground at Columbus, Ohio.

May 1964:  The Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal Award is presented by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House Rose Garden.

After all the celebrations are over, this lady is becoming well known to many aviators that read about her.  She did not achieve the fame of Amelia Earhart who flew into history after disappearing on her attempt to fly around the world in 1937.   Jerrie Mock played down her trip as a fun adventure.  She flew her Cessna 180   "Spirit of Columbus" 23,821 miles around the world.  She established several new records along the way. She would continue to set more records in a newer airplane.

She spent her later years after her flying career in the small town of Quincy, Florida near the state capitol in Tallahassee.

She was kind, courteous, and knew who she was before the flight and after.   Read her book and get to know her and you will understand.  There are recorded interviews available online to hear her spoken words as she recounts her great adventure.

You can get a copy of her reprinted book from Phoenix Graphix via their web site.  http://www.38charlie.com/

Learn more about her on these web sites:

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/October/02/jerrie-mock-dies

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2005/April/1/Aviations-Forgotten-Pioneer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrie_Mock

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/us/jerrie-mock-first-solo-female-pilot-to-circumnavigate-the-globe-dies-at-88.html?_r=0

http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/women-in-aviation/mock.cfm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11151916/Jerrie-Mock-obituary.html

http://abc7chicago.com/news/jerrie-mock-1st-female-pilot-to-circle-globe-dies-at-88/332652/

http://www.historynet.com/jerrie-mock-record-breaking-american-female-pilot.htm

http://firstaerosquadron.com/2014/10/01/1st-woman-to-fly-solo-around-the-world-dies-at-88/

Dan Pimentel - A man with a movie to make about Jerrie Mock.  Here are some of his blogs about Jerrie and Charlie:

http://www.av8rdan.com/2009/09/why-charlie.html

http://www.av8rdan.com/2013/11/a-genderless-sky-one-of-aviation.html

There are many more pages you can find via Google Search by using the search words "Jerrie Mock" and learn more details of her records as an aviator and about the woman herself.