Journal And Photograph Album Of A 1956 Self-Piloted Airplane Trip To Mexico

JOSEPH AND EDWARD L. GRIFFIN MOONEY

Publication: Privately photographed and typescripted, 1956, N P

Photographic album and typed journal of a self-piloted airplane trip from Seattle to Mexico in the spring of 1956. The travelers were Joe Mooney (1912-96), a Northwest Orient Airlines pilot who lived in Seattle at the time of the trip, and Edward L. Griffin, who lived in Anchorage, Alaska. Griffin piloted the rented airplane for a good portion of the journey, but because he was a much less experienced, Mooney took over in adverse conditions.

The 11-page typescript, compiled by Griffin, details their flying adventures to La Paz and Guaymas, Mexico, along with a few other stops along the way. The flight to La Paz took seven days and was an adventure, starting with being hit by a hawk only 30 minutes into the first leg of the flight, requiring them to turn back and delay a day for repairs to a wing. One of the hawk's feathers and several images of the dead hawk are included in the photographic album.

Along the way the pair made numerous pit stops at small airports and remote landings strips for gas. They wrote that they were warned to fill up even when they didn't need to and to always strain the gas. A few times they were forced down due to inclement weather. The flight to La Paz required 11 stops in Eugene, Rosenburg, Arcata, San Francisco, San Diego, Tijuana, Hamilton's Ranch, an unnamed ranch, Santa Maria Ranch, Bahia de Los Angeles, and Lorento. As part of his journal, Griffin also kept a detailed record of trip expenses; for example, his share of the airplane rental was $50.95.

The travelers spent four days in La Paz and three days in Guaymas, a town in the state of Sonora, in the northwestern part of Mexico. Mooney caught a cold and spent much of the La Paz visit recuperating, while Griffin went fishing, took photographs, and visited the sights of the city. At one point they ran into an Alaskan Bush pilot by the name of Brown who advised them that a Northwest Orient plane had just crashed in Seattle (this is the Boeing 377 flight that had to ditch in Puget Sound on April 2, 1956, with the loss of five lives).

On the return route weather was particularly troublesome and they made 15 stops for gas or weather: Santa Rosalia ("roughest landing strip in the world"), Guaymas, Hermosilla, Nogales, Tucson, El Monte/Alhambra, Solvang, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, Los Banos, Stockholm, red Bluff, Siskiyou, Yreka, and Salem. Near Los Angeles they unadvisedly took off in a thick haze. "April 14, Alhambra: We finally said, 'to hell with it' and left the airport at 10:30, in a cloud and flew out of Los Angeles in a thick haze and at low altitude, but we could only see the ground with difficulty."

The album contains photographs of the airplane, lodging, and street scenes in the places they visited, along with shops and restaurants. It also contains several luggage stickers, receipts, hotel brochures and handbills, an invitation to a "gala" at a Club in La Paz, flyers, a typescript one-page letter from a travel bureau about La Paz, and a flight log with only one entry.

The typescript and the album are both in very good condition. The album measures 9 1/2" x 11 1/2" and is bound in green imitation leather. It contains 131 black and white photographs, mostly 4" x 5", affixed to the album leaves with photograph corners.