 | 
 | Thursday, September 27, 2001
On the way to Omaha!
What a beautiful early fall day in the Midwest! When I awoke this morning there was a low fog hanging over the Platte River. As we arrived at the airport it disappeared into the morning sun and a most beautiful day emerged.
People say Nebraska is ?flat? and while it is flatter than the territory we just came from, I would say the relief of the landscape to be very attractive, at least over the area I have flown. There are many rolling hills and trees leading down to the Platte River. I saw the ?sand hills? as I flew eastward and thoroughly enjoyed exercising the Avian in the cool, smooth morning air.
The trip was not too long to Omaha. Amelia landed in Omaha for fuel and then decided not to take off for Chicago due to 58 M.P.H. winds. The winds today were very light when I landed at exactly the same place Amelia landed, Omaha?s Eppley Field. The folks at Elliot Flying Service treated us like royalty and were working on the planes like a hive of bees. The chase plane, a Cessna 182, needed an oil change and a little other work. They had the oil drained in less than thirty minutes. It was great.
I had an interview with two TV stations and the Omaha paper, which covered Amelia?s landing in 1928 very extensively. I checked into a 1920?s hotel and walked across the street to see the stunning old Orpheum Theater where Amelia went when she was in town on her trip as well. I also did a half-hour interview with a local radio station doing a history series on Omaha. It was fun to talk about Amelia and how she came to stay in the city in 1928.
Tomorrow I head to Chicago with a stop in Ottumwa, Iowa. Ottumwa is the hometown of Greg Herrick (the owner of the Avro) and of the Antique Airplane Association which has been a great help for us on this trip. We know Amelia went across Iowa but are not certain where she stopped for fuel, so we elected for Ottumwa.
Tomorrow afternoon I will arrive in the Chicago area as Amelia did. The airport she landed at is not there anymore so we are landing in Lansing around 3:30 in the afternoon. Unfortunately the airspace restrictions are still in place for little planes so we cannot get any closer to Chicago or Meigs field, where we were scheduled to land.
See you tomorrow!
The guys in the chase plane better start getting their own stuff out of the back! This is me, going through the baggage box to retreive some things for one of the guys.
[Return back to log archive list] | |
|
