The Ambitious Flying Housewife

It's November 22, 1925, and a young girl named Geraldine Fredritz comes into the world in Newark, Ohio to Timothy and Blanche Fredritz. Timothy Fredritz was employed as a clerk for the local power company.

Geraldine was soon acquired the nickname of "Jerrie", and when she was 7 years old her father took her into the cockpit of a Ford Trimotor and she immediately fell in love with flying (like so many of us do).

Like most girls of that age, Jerrie observed that the "boys" had more fun because they were allowed to do things that parents in those days thought were inappropriate for girls. This was not unusual back in those days. Because she was not allowed to cross the street, and there were mainly boys on her side of the street, she played cowboys and indians, and cops and robbers. She had little interest in dolls.

Sidenote: "My wife Betty Alicia, grew up on a farm and had to argue with her mother in order to get a pair of 'boys blue jeans' because they had better pockets and looked cooler. She too became interested in flying, and so learned to fly while all the time raising 3 boys."

For one Christmas she wanted a toy train set like the boys played with, but her mother said no to that. However, her oldest son gave her a train set in the 1990s which she would get out and play it with her grandchildren.

Jerrie graduated from Newark High School in 1943, still with her eyes on the sky, and wanted to become an aeronautical engineer. While in high school Jerrie took an engineering course in which she was the only girl. 

She went on to attend Ohio State University with a plan to study aeronautical engineering, but in 1945 fate intervened. She had met and married a young man named Russell Mock on March 21, 1945, in Cook County, Illinois. Russel C. Mock was an advertising executive, and they went on to have three children, Valerie, Roger and Gary. 

Througout the years Jerrie had a number of jobs, and eventually was hired as the manager of the Columbus Airport. This just increased her interest in flying, and in 1956 Jerrie began taking flying lessons.

Between managing the home, raising three children, and holding down a job it meant that it took her until 1958 before she finally earned her private pilot's certificate. Once she got her pilot's license, she and her husband became half-owners in a 1953 Cessna 180. 

Sidenote: "My wife also wanted to learn to fly while she was raising three boys. Here is a picture of her sitting in a Piper Warrior waiting to take flight."

The Cessna Model 180

The Cessna 180 Skywagon is an all-metal, 4-place aircraft with a 225 hp Continental O-470-A six-cylinder direct-drive engine. It turns a two-blade constant speed propeller which is 6 feet, 10 inches long.

A 3-dimensional drawing of a Cessna 180 similar to Jerrie Mock's airplane.

Specifications:

• Cruise speed:  162 mph;
• Service Ceiling: 19,600 feet;
• Maximum Fuel Capacity: 84 gallons;
• Range: 1,215 miles.

A photgraph of Jerrie Mock standing in front of their plane, The Spirit of Columbus, in 1964.

Then, one night at dinner, she complained to her husband that she was bored of staying at home all day and had nothing interesting to occupy herself. She exclaimed that she just wanted to do something to break the monotony. In sarcasm Russell said "Why don't you fly around the world?"

As happens in so many marriages, she immediately replied "Why not?" Taking her husband at his word, she began studying an atlas and started to map out a flight around the world. Following that, she began to plan her trip in earnest.

Once she had made that decision they soon realized that she could be the first woman to achieve this goal. They kept their plan as quiet as possible because another woman, a  27 year old pilot who flew charter planes by the name of Joan Merriam Smith from California, had desided that she would go solo around the world following Amelia Earhart's route.

Jerrie by this time had already accumulated 500 hours of flying time. In preparation for her around-the-world flight she decided that she needed an instrument rating as well.  She completed her instrument rating by the time of her flight, and by then had accumulated 750 hours of flying time.

As part of her planning in preparing the route, Jerrie contaced some of her Air Force friends, making sure that she would exceed the required official distance for an around-the-world flight of 22,858.8 miles.

Circumnavigation of the World

Then, weeks before Mock's planned spring 1964 departure, the National Aeronautic  Association (NAA) informed her that a second woman had filed for an around-the-world flight as well. 

To comply with the rules she discovered that the flight had to be sanctioned and verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).  The NAA in the United States is the U.S. representative to the FAI, and plays a key role in verifying any record attempts.

The other pilot, Joan Merriam Smith, said she planned to depart in a twin-engine Piper Apache in mid-March and follow the same route Amelia Earhart had taken. Both had submitted paperwork to acquire the exclusive sanction to set a women’s around the world speed record, but the NAA designated Mock as the official pilot because her paperwork had been fully submitted first.

A map of Geraldine Mock’s route of flight. (Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum)

In preparation for the flight two aluminum ferry tanks were fitted into the cabin, giving the aircraft a total of 178 gallons and extending the range of the aircraft to 2,400 miles. This meant that she could stay airborne for 25 hours.

On the right seat of the aircraft they installed an HF radio set for long range communications which complimented the normal VHF radio already installed in the aircraft.

HF radios (High Frequency radios) were primarily used for amateur (or "Ham" radios) radio communication. These were vacuum tube-based systems with separate receivers, transmitters, and power supplies.

A photo of Jerrie Mock in the cockpit of her Cessna 180. You can see the backside of the HF radio on the aircraft seat in front of her.

Sidenote: "It turns out that I am also a ham radio enthusiast, with the call sign 'N8JW'."

By the time all of the extra fuel and equipment were loaded into the Skywagon, registration number N1538C - affecionately known by the name "Charlie" - there was very little room for anything else in the airplane.

The route would take Jerrie Eastward, out over the Atlantic to North Africa, into Southeast Asia before heading out for the long flight across the Pacific. From California it was an easy and pleasant trip back to where her flight began in Columbus, Ohio.

The Flight

On March 19, 1964, Jerrie Mock departed the Columbus Airport on the first leg of her flight. She decided not to wear slacks, and instead sported a drip-dry skirt and sweater set looking like a woman off to the bridge club.

Out over the Atlantic enroute to Bermuda the HF radio was found to have a wire which had been mysteriously disconnected. This was followed by icing out over the Atlantic, and an instrument approach and landing at the Santa Maria Airport in the Azores.

Next she flew to and landed in Casablnca, Morroco (Remember Humphrey Bogart in the movie "Casablanca" made in 1942?). Next came Algeria, followed by Tripoli in Libya. She departed Libya on April 1st planning to land next in Cairo, but, unfortunately, that is not what happened. 

As a result, this became one of the more interesting events when she landed at an airport that she thought was Cairo International Airport. Instead, she mistakenly landed at a military airport in Inshaas, Egypt. She quickly found herself surrounded by armed military men who were puzzled by who she was and what she was doing there.

To understand why this might have happened, it is important to remember that, in 1964, pilots flew using dead reckoning with maps and radio beacons. There was no GPS in those days, and so pilots had to navigate by comparing what they see outside of the airplane with what the map tells them.

Remember, here is a lone woman in a small airplane, dressed in high heels and a skirt, which didn't exactly cry out "spy"! They quickly directed her to the nearby Cairo International Airport.

Once they understood why she was there they directed her to the Cairo International Airport which was just a few miles away. , When she arrived at the correct airport, and upon landing, she was immediately surrounded by a lot of reporters and well wishers.

A photograph of Jerrie Mock, surrounded by reporters upon her arrival in Egypt.

While in Egypt she rode a camel and visited the pyramids before leaving for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on April 3rd, and then on to Karachi, Pakistan on April 4th. When she landed in Saudi Arabia they were astonished to see a woman flying an airplane all by herself, this in a country where women were not even allowed to drive cars!

She then flew on to Delhi, India, where she landed and where her husband called her and urged her to fly on to Calcutta. She did not want to do that as she was getting tired and needed some rest.

This was followed by Calcutta, Bangkok, Thailand, and then across the sea to Manila in the Philippines landing there on April 8th. By this time she was getting really tired, but her husband kept pushing here to "hurry up" to her next stop.

On the 11th of April Jerrie landed on Guam, then Wake Island on the 12th, then leaving for Hawaii on the 13th. From there came the long, 18 hour and 2,400 miles to Oakland, California. Her husband was there to greet her, along with reporters, tv cameramen, and a huge crowd of well wishers.

Jerrie finally arrived in Columbus, Ohio on April 17th after stops in Tuscon, Arizona, El Paso, Texas, and Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tired, but happy, she was glad to be safely back home. Her incredibile journey finished, we have to marvel at the skills this young woman and low time pilot displayed and what she accomplished.

Jerrie Mock had covered 23,103 miles in 29 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes recording 158 flying hours and setting two official records with the FAI. But, Jerrie Mock never flew N1538C again as it was acquired by the Cessna Aircraft Company and hung over it's production line for many years.

Today N1538C is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.

Cessna exchanged 38 Charlie for a brand new six-place P206 Super Skylane, N155JM.

A photograph of Jerrie Mock with her Cessna P206, N155JM. (FAI)

The National Aeronautic Association and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale certified the flight as an round-the-world speed record for Class C1-c aircraft (weighing less than 3,585 pounds (1,626 kg)), and, by default, a women’s speed record around the world. Mock set a total of seven records including first woman to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Jerrie Mock's Statement of Course used for her circumnavigation of the world in 1964.

The FAA's Gold Medal for Exceptional Service

On May 10, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson presented Jerrie Mock with the Federal Aviation Agency's Gold Medal for Exceptional Service.

President Lyndon Johnson awards Mock the Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal on May 4, 1964.

In 1970 Jerrie Mock wrote about her around-the-world flight in her book Three Eight Charlie, a book which was published by Lippincott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1970.

On Monday, September 30, 2014, Geraldine Fredritz Mock passed away in Quincy, Florida at the age of 88. She requested that her ashes be spread over the Gulf of Mexico.

During her flying time she set many records, to wit:

First woman to

• First woman to fly solo around the world
• First woman to fly around the world in a single-engine plane
• First woman to fly U.S. – Africa via North Atlantic
• First woman to fly the Pacific single-engine
• First woman to fly the Pacific West to East
• First woman to fly both the Atlantic and Pacific
• First woman to fly the Pacific both directions

Legacy

A life-size bronze sculpture of Mock, sculpted by Renate Burgyan Fackler, was unveiled in the courtyard of The Works museum in Newark, Ohio on September 14, 2013.

Mock's younger sister, Susan Reid, modeled for the statue while wearing Mock's knit skirt, sweater, and leather shoes that she had worn on her round-the-world flight.

According to Wendy Hollinger, the publisher who republished Mock's book about her flight, Mock did not especially like skirts, but "was in a skirt because she thought it would be socially acceptable, especially in the Middle East."

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this newsletter, sign up to receive your own weekly newsletter here: Subscribe here!

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!