Pinchot, arrived here tonight and will join in the search tomorrow.”įor the next few days a dozen aircraft flew back and forth over the suspected crash zone while nearly a thousand volunteers tramped through the ravines and underbrush below. About 300 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard, mobilized at the request of Gov. Ames, air mail pilot, missing since Thursday night, were shifted to Clarion tonight after another fruitless day's work by the hundreds of volunteers on foot and a dozen Government aviators engaged in the hunt. "Practically all the activities in connection with the search for Charles H.
On October 6, a reporter for the Washington Post working out of nearby Clarion, Pennsylvania, updated readers on the search. The search for Ames and his airplane took several days and was the focus of attention across the northeast. Headline from the Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1925 When no word was heard from him by the next morning, a search was organized for the missing flyer. Airmail pilot Jack Knight, later a captain with United Airlines, won himself a spot on Ripley's Believe It or Not in 1936 for having 'flown more than 1,500,000 miles without an accident.' Dean Smith, airmail pilot and author, flew with Admiral Byrd on his 1928 expedition. At first airmail officials thought that Ames had probably made a forced landing and would contact them by telephone, as required. That was the last report of Ames and his plane. The watchman at Hartleton, Pennsylvania, an emergency airmail landing field twenty miles east of Bellefonte, reported he heard the airplane flying overhead at 11:35 that night. This was part of the day and night airmail service that carried mail from coast to coast. Ames had left Hadley Field, New Brunswick (the eastern terminus of the coast to coast service) at 9:40 p.m. That leg of the trip usually took about two hours to fly. Bellefonte was the first stop, flying west, on the route. He was flying a de Havilland mail plane over the mountains near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on the New York to Cleveland run. But the storms were nothing to Ames, as the New York Times quoted him saying “Air mail pilots expect to encounter heavy thunderstorms during most of their trips at this time of year.”Īmes’ luck ran out on October 1, 1925. On July 3, 1924, Ames was flying the last leg of the airmail from San Francisco to New York City when he arrived there seven minutes ahead of schedule in spite of raging thunderstorms across Central Pennsylvania. When the flames reached center section and gravity tank I left ship which burned to the ground." "After cutting motor and turning on pressure pyrene tank, I landed the ship ok in plowed rolling field and tried to put out fire with my hand pyrene, which was impossible. While flight testing a de Havilland airplane out of Hazelhurst Field, New York, Ames reported that "the con rod in cylinder number four, right, broke, one piece going through the crank case and starting the motor on fire while in the air." Flying over Westbury, New York, at the time, Ames responded well to the crisis.
Airmail Service on Decemhe already had more than 700 hours in the air.Īmes was a steady and reliable pilot who had his share of forced landings, including a particularly frightening one on September 26, 1922.
The cast includes Virginia Wolf of Farmington, Melissa Veale of Simsbury, Christy Donahue of West Hartford, Betsy Bradley of New Britain, Mark O’Donnell of Windsor, Gloria Gick of Simsbury, Karen Balaska of Somers, Stephanie MacGillivary of Enfield and Mark Vogel of Hartford.Charles Ames was born on Februin Jackson, Michigan. Post Office pilots and airplanes then took over, built the air mail into a nationwide network, and serviced it for the next nine years. Her words, our cast, and the one-of-a-kind setting make for a truly captivating evening,” Bushey said in a press release US air mail operations began with the Army Air Service, which flew a regular route between New York and Washington as a demonstration for three months in 1918. She truly brings the history of aviation and the New England Air Museum to life. “I am very excited to be directing this extraordinary play by award-winning playwright Betsy Maguire. The play is directed by Chris Bushey of Bloomfield. “The Mystery of Clara Cloud” has three acts, taking place in each of the museum’s three large exhibit hangars, with a run time of about one hour. The audience will also meet the “ghosts” of Clara Cloud’s past - including several aviation legends - who will help untangle the mystery of her shocking and sudden disappearance in 1935. “The Mystery of Clara Cloud” is a fictional story about an early air mail pilot from Connecticut. The Mystery of Clara Cloud,” an original play by local playwright Betsy Maguire, will be performed at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks this February.