Hello Everyone¡.
Well¡ we¡¯re almost there. On Tuesday, September 8, 2020 we begin the process of making aviation and Post Office history. ?If all goes according to plan, Christopher Freeze, flying a Cessna 182 (N610DB), and?Warren Morningstar and Keith West flying AOPA's Beech Bonanza camera plane (N4GA) will depart Farmingdale, NY¡¯s Republic Airport sometime shortly after 7 AM. Their destination is Bellefonte, PA. They won¡¯t be landing exactly where Randolph Page, flying US Mail plane No. 102, set down 100 years ago. ?Tom Beaver¡¯s farm field is now part of the city, but the town fathers did build a nice airport south and west of the town. Labeled N96 on pilot sectional maps, it will be the focal point of a larger community celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of transcontinental airmail service. ?Bellefonte enjoys the honor of being the US Post Office¡¯s first airfield west of New York as it expanded from its Long Island base towards Cleveland, OH in late 1918. ?It is also home to the American Philatelic Society Museum, which includes a collection of air mail memorabilia. Messrs Freeze, Morningstar and West are slated to arrive around 9:40 or so. You¡¯ll be able to follow their progress on the??website under the Flight Follow tab. Waiting form them is slated to be Gene Salvatore as primary pilot and Jonathan Still as backup for the next leg of the relay.
Attached below?is the current slate of volunteer pilots.
After Bellefonte, comes Geauga County Airport in Middlefield, OH, another small community airport, but also with delightful celebratory plans. ?From there, the next pilot(s) head for Bryan, OH and its Williams County Airport¡ and so on. ?By the end of Day One, the relay will overnight in Joliet, IL. ?Next morning, it¡¯s off to Iowa City, and Omaha, and North Platte, and¡.a forecast freak early September snow storm over the Rockies. It could be our first schedule disruption. The last thing we want is for any of our pilots to run into icing conditions. ?We¡¯re working on a couple contingency plans, including driving the mail from North Platte or Ogallala, NE to Cheyenne, WY so it¡¯ll be there for the Thursday morning departure.?
In a strange way, it would be almost historically appropriate to have one leg of the relay be by surface transport. This often is how the Post Office got the mail through when a plane was forced down: the pilot put it on the first train headed in the right direction. That was also the advantage of?following railroads at the time.
Hopefully the weather will improve by Thursday and Kent, Craig, Larry, Bruce and Mike will have VFR all the way to Carson City, NV. ?
Day four is really starting to shape up to be exciting. ?John?Sawatzky and Stephen Tucker, our key event?¡®wrangler¡¯ in the Bay Area will be picking up the mail in Carson City in his Cessna 182 Skylane (N91591). Crossing the Sierras over Lake Tahoe, they will be met at Sacramento¡¯s Mather Airport by possibly several pilots, the lead mail plane - Cessna P210 (N210SL) - ?flown by Steve Isaacs. Due to possible marine fog and the need to reset the arrival schedule back 45 minutes, the mail will be arriving at Buchanan Airport (CCR) about 10:30AM local time. ?The planes will park in front of Pacific States Aviation?facility in Concord, CA and at 10:45 the BeechBoys formation flying group will do a?¡°missing man¡± formation flyover to honor the memory of the 34 US Post Office air mail pilots and mechanics who lost their lives between 1918 and 1926. ?PSA is offering food and beverages to the pilots and any dignitaries and media that attend. ?
Around 12:30-1:00 pm, the mailbags with the commemorative postcards the pilots collected along the route of the relay will be driven to Martinez Marina on the Sacramento River. ?There they will be loaded on Seaplane Adventure¡¯s () DeHavilland DHC-8?¡®Beaver¡¯ float plane for the last few air miles to the shore of Marina Green just east of the Golden Gate Bridge and site of the original landing in 1920. ?There at 2:30 pm, we will?¡°officially¡± hand-over the mailbags to San Francisco¡¯s postmaster ?or his representative. From there, the postcards will be driven to the main San Francisco Post Office to be postmarked with the commemorative stamp the USPS had made for the occasion. ?
NOTICE: ?Due to Covid-19 restrictions we cannot invite the public to the Marina Green event. It is restricted to Post Office and AirMail100 delegates and any media who care to attend.
So, keep your fingers crossed! ?We have hopes the San Francisco Fire Department fire-fighting tugs will let go with their water canons, and the US Coast Guard will give us some blasts on their ship¡¯s horn.
If?you can. Join Us. Make History.
Bill
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Bill Moore
Event Organizer
AirMail100 Centennial Flights Project
1915 Southview Drive
Papillion, NE 68046
402.575.8085 (M)
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Ron Lem