(This is an article about my great aunt that my dad found while cleaning. The newspaper article was from August, 1930)
Engine Died in License Test, but Harriet Sackett's Nerve Saved Her
Monday, August 11, 1930, Des Moines Tribune-Capital
The examination which was to give a former Des Moines girl, Harriet E. Sackett, her private pilots license at a Washington, D.C., airport late last week became a real test of her ability when the motor of her plane failed in the air. Accounts of her successful landing were received by her father, F. A. Sackett, 1058 thirty-first street, Saturday in clippings from the Washington Star and the Washington News.
Miss Sackett was putting her plane through the necessary paces for the private's license, 3,000 feet above the capitol. When her motor suddenly went dead, Miss Sackett succeeded in bringing her disabled ship to a safe landing with a "dead stick."
'Beautiful Exhibition.'
"It was one of the most beautiful exhibitions of feminine nerve and skill in flying I have ever seen," Alva Sole, president of the District of Columbia Air legion said.
A large crowd of aviators and friends had gathered to witness her examination. She went through the requirements for her private pilot's license easily and was sailing along smoothly when suddenly her motor went dead half a mile up.
She sent the ship gently into a spiral and circled down over Washington airport.
"It was all I could do," she said. "They taught me how to fly and I brought the ship in according to instructions. That was all there was to it."
Flew After Eight Hours.
Miss Sackett was the first girl to be given a private pilot's license in the capital this year, and the first girl student of the District of Columbia Air legion to win her pilot's license. She joined the legion last spring and made her first flight alone after eight hours and fifteen minutes of dual instruction. She took her first parachute jump two weeks ago Sunday.
Miss Sackett left Des Moines in February, 1929, to fill an appointment in the department of secretary of state at Washington, D.C. She is still employed in that department. Before leaving for Washington, D. C., she had been secretary for J. J. Hughes, general agent of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company for five and a half years.
A twin sister, Mrs. Gerald J. Wadsworth, 3018 Woodland avenue, Des Moines, has never taken up flying.
More archive newspapers family anniversary, 1917 and this one.
Mom says:
My dad used to tell us that when the twin girls were born they did not expect them to live. They put each one in a shoe box next to the fire (heating stove or whatever) and pulled them through. My sister, Liz, lived with Harriet and her family one summer when she worked in D.C.
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