European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                D after winning 1929 women air provide fresh the next Milestone in her quest for records came i when she and Francis Marsalis set endurance dubbed the flying boudoir do the two took off from Long Island in a it Psi Thrush and stayed aloft for 196 hey were supported by a Curtiss Robin that r plane Airt air and provided them with food and clean after eight Days we quit because we got bored to we just had a totally different concept from what is was actually Francis and i thought it would be kind of we took along a lot of books to keep ourselves amused but it didst work out that whoever want flying had to pump Gas from one tank to the other with a Small hand wobble it was just wobbling and then we had chores like greasing the Rocker arms of the charging batteries and trying to keep ourselves we started out flying four hour but towards the end we were flying two hours shifts and finding it awfully difficult to slay the vibration and the noise was i would Chew stick my head out the drink Black anything to stay it was the awful est feeling in the they stayed aloft 196 hours in 5 Copilot in staggering Bce Shcraft poll 1977 the year 1936 is the one she remembers As the most in August of that year she entered the Bendix trophy it was the first time women were allowed in the racing officials were so convinced that a woman  win the Bendix that they had a special woman prize of for the first woman to no one considered that a women could win the race but Amelia Earhart and Laura Ingalls entered Earhart was flying a twin engine Lockheed Electra and Ingles a Lockheed Thaden was flying a staggering Beechraft c17r powered by a Wright 420 h with another Well known Pilot of the Day As her Blanche the plane was a product of beeches new Beech which he formed in 1932 after Selling travel air the first staggering came out in about 1933 and the Economy still want in any great she the company was struggling along on kind of a shoe string and i think when they saw that offer of for the special award for plus for first place and they decided to go for i had flown the staggering and 1 was probably the Only woman in the country who had Ever flown one at the i think there was another in deciding that they wanted a woman to Fly their air plane everybody was afraid of they were the they outflow All the airline stuff and some of the military the staggering had a retractable Landing gear an innovation for Small Craft and they were Tricky on the they were just Lovely in the air but they were a handful on the Thaden won the race by going against the advice of Halfway through the race when she landed to refuel at Beech told her to quit poking around and Fly the plane but she says she Learned from experience that races Are not always won by the fastest that common sense in taking care of the plane often proves to be the winning so she maintained the same rate of Speed All the Way across so Many things can happen on a flight that Luck played an important part in the win was a tremendous boost for the following the race she was awarded the Harmon trophy As the outstanding woman Pilot in the United states in it was Given by the league internationale Des in the years immediately after that Many pilots were toying with the idea of flying around the on several occasions she tried unsuccessfully to talk her longtime Friend Amelia Earhart out of it the theories about the different things that might have happened to Earhart Are Thaden 1 think its very obvious what happened to anyone who has delved into it some and knew some of the things that were going she she says part of the blame for what happened to Earhart rests with her husband the on Earhart first try for a flight around the she crashed on Takeoff from Honolulu and the plane had to be sent Back to the states to be while Earhart was readying for her second Putnam got mad at her manager Paul fired him and took Over Thaden he hardly knew the front end of a plane from the Back and nothing about the preparations that had to be made for the he failed to notify the coast guard people on Houind Island of Amelias radio frequencies men pilots As a class Are not Superior to so it turned out they could hear her but they  transmit to when Amelia flew up from new the weather want Good and she had to Fly mostly by dead Rowland Island is a Little and when she got to where she thought it ought to be she started flying a North South line sort of a Grid pattern which was the smart thing to the coast guard picked her up loud and Clear during this time and they knew she was close by the volume and clarity with which they heard but she want Reading them and Plain ran out of fuel and had to since Earhart aviation has come a Long Way and probably the biggest single Factor in the and Vance was world War it was the turning after essentially All major advances came from the military Side of in the Small plane aviation advances have not always been for the Thaden those Early planes were Well you had to Fly them All the they  be balanced so they would Fly by themselves but they were much nicer to Fly than present Day Modem planes Are heavy on the you dont get that there heavy to their ailerons and rudders and elevators Are so instead of just breathing on the controls you have to physically do its Tike comparing a sports car with a and what about today Small plane pilots Many dont really know How to most of them Haven Learned to Fly right in the first place because most instruction these Days leaves an awful lot to be de instructors Are usually on their Way to try to be some thing More than instructors and they could care Jess in the first there Content to turn Loose an air plane not an air plane Pilot and theres a lot of Dif the difference is that a Pilot has the feel of his air he knows what it can do and together they make a an air plane Driver is sitting in an air plane but Hes a separate entity from another criticism Thaden has of flying today is the flying into a metropolitan Airport with All the restrictions is a she a lot of the fun has gone out of she says reflectively then her eyes Light she smiles and theres a hint of mischief in her i know what its like to really she says you have to go Back into the Boondocks where there Arent any control towers and big brother the Kaa int breathing Down your then you have to have a really Good air plane and there Arent too Many of them around a Good air plane a staggering then you need a lot of territory where nobody will bother where you can Fly 100 feet off the ground if you want to and theres no radio with somebody hollering in your the stars and stripes Page 15