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Pilot & Pioneer
By Kathleen Laufenberg
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
QUINCY - Inside an antebellum house on a shady street in the small town of Quincy, 79-year-old Jerrie Mock sits surrounded by faded newspapers and old photographs.
"Jerrie does it!" reads part of an April 18, 1964, Columbus Evening Dispatch headline. In smaller newsprint, it adds: "Columbus flier praised by mayor, governor, president."
In the accompanying photo, Mock, then 38, beams. She is surrounded by happy onlookers, all celebrating the moment when Mock entered history - make that herstory - by becoming the first woman to fly solo around the globe.
Did she do it because it was an irresistible challenge? Or for the glory? Or to prove a point about woman power?
Nah.
"I was out to have fun," said the 5-foot-tall, 105-pound Mock. "I wanted to meet people and see the world."
She did far more, of course.
"She is definitely someone who made history and will continue to be a name in woman's history," said Margie Richison, 63, the chairwoman of the board of trustees at the Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City.
"It was pretty gutsy of her, especially when you think back to those days," said Tallahassee pilot Ed Copes, 54.
You have a chance to meet Mock this weekend at an air festival at the Tallahassee airport. Former NASA astronaut Capt. Winston Scott will be there, too. And, if you have the interest and money, you also can arrange to take a ride in a World War II trainer or fighter plane (prices range from $100 to $750).
Admission to the two-day event - $5 per person or $10 per family, children younger than 12 get in free - can be purchased at the gate.
Flying Charlie
During a recent interview in her home, Mock was quiet and reserved as she sat at her dining-room table covered in news clippings and photos. Dressed in slacks, a turquoise turtleneck and a string of turquoise-colored beads, she enjoyed recalling the sheer joy of flying and Charlie, the nickname she gave the small plane she flew solo around the world.
She made her historic solo flight in a 1953, single-engine Cessna 180 officially called the Spirit of Columbus and freshly painted fire-engine red and white for the trip. In her memoir, "Three-Eight Charlie," she writes that before making the last landing of her 29-day flight around the world, she dialed down the plane's radio so she could share her last minutes in the air alone with Charlie.
"After spending so many solitary hours in my airplane home, I had come to think of the little Cessna as ... almost alive - a real friend," Mock wrote. "Charlie had seemed to enjoy the oceans and deserts almost as much as I, except when he got sand in his carburetor. I patted the top of his tan instrument panel and thanked him for taking such good care of me. And I thanked God for flying along with me."
That's the part of flying she fell in love with: the solitude, the perspective from the air, the feeling as if you are, in fact, flying.
"I don't think I would want to ever fly on a big 747 (airplane)," Mock said, shaking her head. "All those people."
She stared at an old snapshot of herself standing beside Charlie.
"Just think of being all alone in a little plane over the ocean," she finally said. "That's the best."
Oops
Her nearly 23,000-mile flight around the planet did, however, take her away from her family and home in Columbus, Ohio. Waiting for her return were husband Russell (now deceased), who was a recreational pilot and public-relations manager; sons Roger and Gary, both teenagers at the time; and daughter Valerie, then 3.
But the trade-off was that she did get to see some of the exotic places she longed for. Her pit stops included places such as Casablanca, Calcutta and Bangkok.
Her most exciting stopover, though, was at the Cairo airport. At least, she thought she had landed at the Cairo airport.
Oops.
Actually, she'd mistakenly landed Charlie at a restricted military base.
"It was supposed to a secret," Mock said of the base's location.
Her first tipoff that something was amiss was her reception.
"There were three trucks full of soldiers with guns," Mock said.
She'd arrived at former King Farouk's palace, she said, which had been taken over by soldiers and turned into a base camp. Inside, the palace had been stripped bare. Even the carpets had been removed from the black and white marble floors.
"They'd taken everything out," Mock said. "They'd even drained the pool."
But the soldiers wouldn't let her leave. They served her cold cider and tea. Finally, that night, they let her fly out again. When she landed at the correct Cairo airport, she was in a daze.
"My mind," she writes in her memoirs, "must have been in a state of shock."
Fortunately, things got better. She saw the pyramids and took a camel ride before leaving Egypt - something she'd always wanted to do. Someone snapped a picture of her on the camel, too, using the camera she'd brought on her trip - but then, she said, the CIA confiscated the film.
"I guess they thought I may have taken a picture of something (at the secret airport)," Mock said. "I would have been happy to let them see my film. I just wanted them to return it."
No one did.
Fire!
She remembers having a grand time in Casablanca. The food was exotic and delicious.
"We went to a beautiful restaurant. I had couscous for the first time, and bastilla (a flaky pastry pie featuring pigeon meat)."
But all her prearranged stopovers to eat, sleep and fuel up had to be quick. For another aviatrix, fellow American Joan Merriam Smith, had decided she wanted to be the first woman to fly solo around the planet, too. That added a bit of a race element, even though Smith chose a longer route around the world - the same one attempted by Amelia Earhart. And although Smith successfully completed it, the flight took almost a month longer than Mock's.
Both women had some scary moments, but completed their trips without serious accidents.
Mock's most frightening moment came while flying over Algeria. She noticed that she had forgotten to reel in her radio's long antenna wire. She flipped the switch that wound in the antenna - and forgot about. Which doesn't sound serious - except that the little motor that reeled in the antenna wire was just inches away from Charlie's biggest fuel tank. Actually, everything in the plane was near a fuel tank. All the seats, save the pilot's, had been removed and replaced with extra fuel tanks.
Panic!
Immediately, she turned off the switch to the little motor that had been grinding away. But what else should she do?
"I thought of crazy things," she writes. "If I had had a parachute, I probably would have jumped."
But her trademark cool returned. She didn't do anything nutty. And the burning odor soon - in about 20 minutes - went away. All was well.
Today, Mock remains quietly proud of all she's accomplished - and as in love with flying as ever. That's why this almost- octogenarian who shies away from the limelight agreed to appear at this weekend's Tallahassee air show. Not to give a speech, but to greet people while she sits beneath a small plane that looks much like her old friend Charlie.
IF YOU GO
What: AirFest 2005 presented by the Tallahassee Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association; featuring rides in a World War II fighter plane or hot-air balloon, aircraft from Piper Cubs to L-39 jets, famous fliers, more.
When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Meet Jerrie Mock from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Tallahassee Regional Airport.
Cost: $5 per person; $10 per family. Children younger than 12 accompanied by an adult admitted free. Rides extra.
Details: www.airfest2005.com.
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