I saw a brief obit in the local paper yesterday that Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock passed away Tuesday Sep 30 at the age of 88. For those who don't recognize the name, Jerrie Mock flew her 1953 Cessna "The Spirit of Columbus" around the world in 1964, the first woman to do so solo. The trip was over 23,000 miles and took 29 days. She also set some other aviation records. I believe her airplane, N1538C, is on display in the National Air & Space Museum in Virginia. Apparently she wrote a book about her record-setting flight. "Three-Eight Charlie", I've never read it but would like to.
Blue skies and tailwinds, Jerrie....

I've too always wanted to read that book. Anyone know if it's available anywhere? Been out of print a long time.

Her plane is at the annex out by Dulles.

Her book was republished for the 50th anniversary of her trip; you can buy print or ebook versions here:

http://www.38charlie.com/

I've read the ebook version - definitely worth a read IMHO.

I stopped by to see her airplane in the National Air & Space Museum. It was personally exciting because it's only a couple serial numbers off of the plane I owned at the time. Looking forward to reading the book.

Brett

JimLogajan wrote:Her book was republished for the 50th anniversary of her trip; you can buy print or ebook versions here: http://www.38charlie.com/.....

Eighteen bucks for a paperback copy- pretty reasonable. I requested this book through my local library-- they've managed to get some pretty esoteric books for me from other library systems in the past, so I have high hopes.
Even today, Jerrie Mock's trip would be daunting no matter if it was undertaken by a man or a woman. But imagine back in 1964, when most women didn't even work outside the home and were expected to just be a housewife and mother....what a big deal that trip was for those days.
My favorite aunt was quite an outdoorswoman. Hiking, camping, burro packing, deer & sheep hunting with her 300 H&H model 70, all through the 1950's through the 80's. She was quite a writer and authored a number of articles about hunting & fishing back in the 1960's which were published in outdoors magazine. The funny thing is, in those days none of those magazines would think of publishing anything like that written by a woman, so she had a pen name - Hiram Savage. The "here's a photo of the author" leading a burro or gutting out a deer which accompanied many of the articles were actually of her husband, who was also a big outdoorsman.

Three Eight Charlie is an easy and entertaining read. Interesting to note that Joan Merriman Smith was making an around the world attempt at the same time Jerrie was. Jerrie's husband was trying to push her to keep flying all the time, but Jerrie was also interested in checking out the sights and sounds everywhere she stopped.

Cessna gave Jerrie a 206 after the round the world flight, and she continued to set both speed and distance records flying it.

A flight equal to those made by the likes of Post, Hughes, Johnson, Batten.

JimLogajan wrote:Her book was republished for the 50th anniversary of her trip; you can buy print or ebook versions here:

http://www.38charlie.com/

I've read the ebook version - definitely worth a read IMHO.

Awesome! Thank you!

Got "Three Eight Charlie" from my library after a few weeks wait. Just finished it a couple days ago. Although not real exciting, and not a whole lot about the flying, it was an interesting read.
Just picked up another inter-library loan: "Our Flight to Adventure" by Tay & Lowell Thomas. Written in 1956, it's about their 1954 trip in their brand new Cessna 180 N2343C from Paris, through Spain, Africa, the middle east, and back to Paris. I read it once before but it's been several years, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it again.
Lowell Thomas went on to become an Alaska state senator and Lt Governor in the 1970's, and later ran Talkeetna Air Taxi. His trusty 180 is still registered to an owner in New Hampshire, and is presumably still flying.

I'm about halfway through Our Flight To Adventure. Much more interesting IMHO than Three Eight Charlie-- the flying episodes concentrate more on the flying (actually mentioning power settings etc) instead of focusing on stuff like how the box lunch kept sliding off the pile of stuff next to the pilot and falling on the floor like Three Eight Charlie did. Although seemingly less daunting than a flight around the globe, the flights across central Africa and through the middle east (it wasn't any calmer then than it is now) were pretty challenging. The Thomas's also had time for more sightseeing of people and places, with some pretty good accounts of both.

In yesterday's (4/17/15) newspaper, in the "this date in history" section:
"In 1964, Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock became the first woman to complete a solo airplane trip around the world as she returned to Columbus Ohio after 29-1/2 days in her Cessna 180".