September 13, 1924: The previous day they had flown over the city and taken part in the parade of troops in the Defense Day activities. “The reception and applause given to us all along the line of march was wonderful.” Arnold wrote. “And to be so received by our own people thrilled us all, it was probably the greatest moment in our lives.” The weather was marginal the day they departed for Dayton Ohio, but they were fatigued by all the attention they had received and were ready to press on. Five escorting planes joined them but they left when they ran into near Harpers Ferry. The flyers continued on, flying low over the telephone poles and tree tops as they followed the rail road through the valley. About 80 miles from Dayton the first planes joined them, there numbers increased to about 20 flying information into McCook Field, then the Air Services major aircraft evaluation center. A crowd of nearly 10,000 waited at the airfield to greet them, Two men quickly emerged from the crowd to extend there congratulations, Major Martin and Sgt Harvey, who had piloted Seattle before they crashed in Alaska. For the next two days in shifts, mechanics went over every part of the aircraft and replaced anything that showed any wear or tear, it was the first time the flyers had allowed anyone to work on the aircraft without them being present since the flight started.
October 13, 2017: For the next leg I will be using the Hawker Siddeley HS-748. The HS-748 is a medium size turboprop airliner originally designed by Avro as a replacement for aging DC-3’s. With good STOL performance it found a dedicated market, About 380 aircraft were built between 1961 and 1988. The aircraft is by JustFlight/Aeroplane Heaven. Weather was not the best, cloudy with 6 knot winds a temperature of 17C/63F and clouds from 700 feet extending up to about 6000 feet. Knowing I had to fly over the Appalachian Mountains I climbed up to 8000 feet and headed west over the clouds. McCook field closed in 1927; instead I landed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, about 7 miles to the east. The 331 nm flight took 1.4 hours.
Here are the pics:
Ready to go.
Climbing out of DC.
Climbing up over the clouds.
Over the Appalachian Mountains