AirMail100 Centennial Flights : How to Social Distance at 10,000 Feet

Omaha, NE (6 August 2020) — Thousands of major indoor and outdoor events, from concerts, to sports, to even the venerable Rose Parade, have either been postponed or outright cancelled due to COVID-19. Every year, pilots especially look forward to the annual AirVenture fly-in hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Oshkosh. Concerns over COVID forced its organizers to cancel it this year for the first time in the event’s 67 year history.

One upcoming aviation-focused event that will not be cancelled is the AirMail100 Centennial Flights project: a volunteer effort to commemorate the start of transcontinental air mail service by the US Post Office 100 years ago this coming September. Starting on September 8th, the first light airplane will lift off at 7 AM from Farmingdale, New York’s Republic Airport to begin a 2,560 mile relay across the nation’s midriff, retracing the original air mail route from Long Island to San Francisco. More than a dozen private pilots flying their own aircraft, including classic Beechs and Cessnas, along with experimental class planes, will carry mail sacks filled with commemorative postcards and letters, destined for San Francisco. There they will be handed over to the Postmaster at the exact time, location, and date as 1920: 2:30 PM on Marina Green by the shores of San Francisco Bay on the 11th of September.

The Post Office has created a special commemorative cancellation stamp for the postcards and letters, which will have been addressed and stamped largely by Scout troops and other youth organizations in communities around the original 16 Post Office airfields.

Like the air mail pilots in 1920, the volunteers will exchange mail sacks between planes, each flying one leg of the continent-spanning route. The airports they will be using include:

September 8, 2020

Republic Airport (Farmingdale, Long Island, NY) - 7 AM
Bellefonte Airport (Bellefonte, PA) 9:45 AM
Geauga County Airport (Middlefield, OH) 12:30 PM
Williams Country Airport (Bryan, OH) 2:40 PM
Joliet Airport (Joliet, IL). 3:50 PM

September 9, 2020

Joliet Airport (Joliet, IL) 7 AM
Iowa City Airport (Iowa City, IA) 8:50 AM
Millard Airport (Omaha, NE) 11:45 AM
North Platte Airport (North Platte, NE) 1:45 PM
Cheyenne Airport (Cheyenne, WY) 4:30 PM

September 10, 2020

Cheyenne Airport (Cheyenne, WY) 7 AM
Rawlins Airport (Rawlins, WY) 8:20 AM
Rock Springs Airport (Rock Springs, WY) 9:45 AM
Skypark Airport (Bountiful, UT) 11:30 PM
Elko Airport (Elko, NV) 1 PM
Carson City Airport (Carson City, NV) 4 PM

September 11, 2020

Carson City Airport (Carson City, NV) 7 AM
Mather Airport (Sacramento, CA) 8:15 AM
Buchanan Airport (Concord, CA) 9:45 AM

Formal Mail Handover to Postmaster on Marina Green (San Francisco, CA) 2:30 PM

“Due to COVID-19, AirMail100 is urging all participants to respect local public health guidelines and precautions, including wearing masks and practicing responsible social distancing,” explains Bill Moore, the principal event coordinator. “One of the benefits of flying the mail this way is our volunteer pilots can practice social distancing from 10,000 feet. The only interactions between our pilots will take place on the ground in open air as they exchange mail bags.”

Moore adds that most of the stops on the ground will be no more than 30-45 minutes, which is the time it typically took for the original air mail pilots in 1920 to swap planes or ground crews to transfer the several hundred pounds of mail their biplanes carried.

“The public is invited to be on hand when the planes land and take off,” he commented. “We’re working with airport management to enable visitors to safely view events on the ground if they wish. We may also permit the inclusion of a limited number of letters, if collectors, especially, are interested in participating in this history-making event.”

More information about the event is available on the AirMail100.com website. The site does offer a limited number of event t-shirts for pre-order, as well as sets of the 16 commemorative postcards.

Bill Moore
1915 Southview Drive
Papillion, NE 68046
402.575.8085 (M)

AirMail100 Centennial Flights project is an entirely volunteer effort of private pilots and aviation enthusiasts.

This release was published on openPR.