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 | Monday, October 1, 2001
Evening photo shoot at Lansing, Illinois near Chicago
After nearly half a day of filming yesterday in Lansing, Illinois we departed for Cleveland via Sandusky, Ohio where we spent the night. It was necessary to land in Sandusky to get a special code to enter Cleveland?s ?Class B? airspace, so we elected to stay the night in Sandusky and fly the last fifty miles to Cleveland today.
The helpers from Minneapolis, Pat and Randy, have some fun with Carlene.
The airport in Sandusky is right on the shore of Lake Erie. It has been owned by the Griffing family since 1910 and is called the Griffing-Sandusky airport. It is very near an amusement park that has more than a dozen roller coasters (one of the coasters is the tallest in the world) and more coasters than any other amusement park in the world. Unfortunately we arrived too late to go for a ride on any of them.
The flight from Chicago to Sandusky was certainly pleasure enough for anyone. It was a late afternoon trip and the sunlight was very soft across the fields of corn and soybeans. We saw many farmers working in the fields harvesting their crops. As I arrived in Sandusky a beautiful harvest moon was just coming into view, low in the eastern sky, as the sun was setting in a rich orange glow behind me. This is reason enough to learn to fly!
As we arrived in Sandusky, I taxied the Avro into a waiting hangar and went out for dinner. We arose later than usual, as we were not planning to arrive in Cleveland until 2:30 this afternoon.
This morning at the hotel we received a surprise phone call from Deric Jaques and his wonderful wife Barbara. They had driven down from Detroit to see the Avro. What made this so very special is that Deric is originally from Australia and his dad was the one who purchased the Avro new from the factory in 1927! At five years old Deric went for a ride, sitting on his mother?s lap, in this very Avro. That was over seventy years ago. Well, today I took him for another ride in the very same airplane that his dad owned back in 1928. Deric loved it, Barbara loved it and I loved it!
Deric and Barbara Jaques after Deric's second ride in over seventy years in the Avro. Deric's dad bought it new from the factory in 1927 and he flew in it (on his mother's lap) when he was five years old. They drove down to Sandusky all the way from Detroit. What a great couple!
After a great chocolate malt in Sandusky we departed for Cleveland with our special ?squawk code? signaling the radar that the Amelia Earhart flight was on the way in. We followed the shoreline of the Great Lake Erie all the way to Burke-Lakefront airport. There a crowd of around one hundred people greeted us. Burke-Lakefront is, as the name implies, on the lake and virtually right in downtown Cleveland. It reminded me of Meigs Field in Chicago, though the city of Cleveland seems rightfully proud of their airport on the Lake. Let?s hope the people of Chicago get to keep Meigs as a lakefront airport forever as well!
On the field in Cleveland is the International Women?s Air and Space Museum. The association is headquartered there and has a beautiful facility and research center. They greeted me, and a proclamation from the City of Cleveland was read. I was presented with a signed and sealed copy of the proclamation. It was very impressive as is Cleveland itself. I toured the museum and had the chance to study one of Amelia Earhart?s own flight suits, which they had on display. It was light cotton with large buttons and a brass zipper up the center. It had a number of roomy pockets, which I would have liked as well. It looked like it would me and I?m sure if I had a chance to try it on it would be a perfect fit!
A warm welcome at Burke-Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio
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