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Settin' 'her Down on the Hump
Oakland Tribune ^ | October 7, 1923 | Jack Bell

Posted on 12/06/2021 10:08:06 AM PST by mairdie

Another Jack Bell story. The first airmail pilots who flew the new route between Reno and San Francisco, going over a hundred miles of mountain peaks without emergency landing spots.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Outdoors; Travel
KEYWORDS: airmailpilots; earlyaviation
I was fascinated, as a kid, by the World War I pilot stories that were on TV at 4pm after school ended. Jack’s stories are put just a few years after the war ended, but the pilots seemed to go into this to maintain that old adrenaline rush. Jack makes me picture things – like the pilot who couldn’t get out of his cockpit because the blizzard had snowed him into it. And he teaches me things I never thought about, like the pilot diagnosing the condition of his plane by the sounds of the wire harmonics. Sadly, when you look up these dare-devil friends, they almost all end up “going west,” as they put it.
1 posted on 12/06/2021 10:08:06 AM PST by mairdie
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To: stars & stripes forever; bagster; generally; Aquamarine; TXBubba; smileyface; blu; LSAggie; ...

PING to Jack Bell story about first airmail pilots


2 posted on 12/06/2021 10:25:27 AM PST by mairdie (Winter Birds - 1993 - https://youtu.be/XBkqOxMNP4E)
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To: mairdie
For FReepers who like this sort of thing I'd strongly recommend Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. These were guys who flew mail through the Andes. In other words, crazy people...
3 posted on 12/06/2021 10:31:55 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill

Thank you. I’ll definitely look that up.


4 posted on 12/06/2021 10:35:10 AM PST by mairdie (Winter Birds - 1993 - https://youtu.be/XBkqOxMNP4E)
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To: Billthedrill

Wikipedia
Night Flight, published as Vol de Nuit in 1931, was the second novel by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It went on to become an international bestseller and a film based on it appeared in 1933. Its popularity, which only grew with the ideological conflicts of the 1930s – 1940s, was due to its master theme of sacrificing personal considerations to a cause in which one believes.

The book is based on Saint-Exupéry’s experiences as an airmail pilot and as a director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline, based in Buenos Aires. The characters were inspired by the people Saint-Exupéry knew while working in South America. Notably, the character of Rivière was based on the airline’s operations director Didier Daurat.


5 posted on 12/06/2021 10:37:05 AM PST by mairdie (Winter Birds - 1993 - https://youtu.be/XBkqOxMNP4E)
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To: Billthedrill

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Night+Flight+1933


6 posted on 12/06/2021 10:39:03 AM PST by mairdie (Winter Birds - 1993 - https://youtu.be/XBkqOxMNP4E)
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To: mairdie; Billthedrill
One of my favorite pictures from those early days...

One of the best aviation books I have read is The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight about Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, and Charles Lindbergh. There is much discussion about the danger of the early airmail days, the short life expectancy of the pilots, and the idiotic handling of airmail contracts by the Roosevelt administration.

7 posted on 12/06/2021 10:59:14 AM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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To: rlmorel

Eddie Rickenbacker designed the 13 stage air mail route from the east to the west coast, whose last two stops were Reno and San Francisco.

Absolute GREAT colorizing!


8 posted on 12/06/2021 11:10:43 AM PST by mairdie (Winter Birds - 1993 - https://youtu.be/XBkqOxMNP4E)
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To: Army Air Corps

Bookmark


9 posted on 12/06/2021 11:24:37 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: mairdie

👍


10 posted on 12/06/2021 12:05:24 PM PST by greeneyes ( Moderation In Pursuit of Justice is NO Virtue--LET FREEDOM RING)
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To: mairdie

Please remove me from your ping list. TIA


11 posted on 12/06/2021 12:21:58 PM PST by Bigg Red (Trump will be sworn in under a shower of confetti made from the tattered remains of the Rat Party.)
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To: mairdie

Yep. A Man’s Man, was Eddie Rickenbacker...:)


12 posted on 12/06/2021 3:56:02 PM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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