Posted on 08/05/2011 3:31:01 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
CHICAGO (AP) — Myrtle Rose was taking a short flight over suburban Chicago when the 75-year-old aviation enthusiast looked out her cockpit window to see two F-16 fighter jets. She assumed the military pilots were just slowing down to get a closer look at her antique plane.
It wasn't until she landed her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub that friends and the police told her the attention was much more serious — for straying into restricted airspace during a visit by President Barack Obama.
Rose . . . normally uses her computer to check for airspace restrictions, but it wasn't working properly.
"I hadn't flown in over a week," she said. "It was a beautiful afternoon." After some guests departed her home, she "just climbed in the airplane and left."
To make matters worse, she said, "I didn't have my radio on. I was just flying around."
On any other day, the brief flight would never have attracted notice. But Obama was in Chicago for a fundraiser marking his 50th birthday.
***
Another NORAD representative suggested Rose had no business thinking that a military jet racing toward her would be in any way related to the cuteness of her plane.
"The biggest thing to keep in mind is that when F-16s come screaming up to you, they are probably trying to tell you something," spokeswoman Stacey Knott said.
***
Rose, a Republican who said she did not vote for Obama, joked about mailing the president a note for his birthday.
"Oh, dear, maybe I should send him a belated birthday card and say, `You should have stayed home and Michelle baked you a birthday cake.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at centurylink.net ...
It is a cute plane and a cute grandma-type too.
30 miles from Chicago!? How big a damn no fly zone do they create for the idiot oblabla?
Love the teddy bear in the jumpseat. She’s pretty spry for 75 years young! Bet she throws a mean party!
I dunno, those standoff AGMs that come standard on a Cub can probably cover it easy.
Let’s see. A J3 puts around at 60 or so kts. I wonder what the stall speed of an F-16 is. Then too, where was she in relation to the “child”???? In what part of the TFR area was she?
"What's that you say, Myrtle? Your social security checks havent been coming in for the past 4 months?"
Myrtle Rose stands by her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub, which she flew into restricted airspace while Barack Obama visited Chicago (AP)
Myrtle Rose, 75, shows off a photo of herself performing as a wing walker in the 1970s in the airplane hangar at her home on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011, in South Barrington, Ill.
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