8/14/2019 The Flight of the Spokane Sun-God

1/3

1

http://www.aerofiles.com/sungod.htmlThe Flight of the Spokane Sun-God

By: Richard L Meister Jr.(Digested by the author from his feature article inSpokane's Our Community Todaymagazine, February 2000)

Photos courtesy of Art Walker via Robert E Smith

A 1929 Buhl CA-6 sesquiplane, the Spokane Sun-God, was the first airplane to make anon-stop transcontinental round-trip flight. Sponsored by the National Air Derby Association along

with Texaco, who supplied the gas, Buhl Aircraft Company, who provided the plane, and manySpokane citizens and businessmen, the ship was piloted by Nick Mamer and Art Walker, whotook on the challenge without concerns of personal reward.

Refueling ships, as flying tankers, would meet them at predetermined locations, but thelack of two-way radios presented a major problem notes would have to be dropped to peopleon the ground or tied to the end of refueling hoses in order to communicate with tanker crews. Asection of the Buhl's fuselage top was removed so that a fuel hose and other supplies could bereceived in flight. Maps were gathered and routes laid out from Spokane to San Francisco to NewYork and back to Spokane. The original plan was to then continue the flight for a second round-trip. That part was unpublicized, but most likely involved going after Spaatz and Eaker's 150-hourendurance record set in January that year.

Thus, after a lengthy ceremony most of which Mamer and Walker did not attend,preferring instead to rest up for the flight at 6:00 pm on August 15, 1929, the Spokane Sun-God, overloaded by some 800 pounds, gracefully lifted off from Felts Field and headed south forits first refueling point over San Francisco's Mills Field. That went smoothly, unlike others tocome.

Mamer had scheduled refueling at Cheyenne, but an unexpected headwind meant hisgas would not stretch that far, so he dropped a note at Elko asking that the Cheyenne tankermeet them instead at Rock Springs, Wyoming. There the fuel transfer had to be made indarkness, and a nighttime refueling had never been done before nor had a refueling been tried at8,000' altitude Rock Springs is 6,270' above sea level. The refueling plane was also limited inthe amount of fuel it could carry up into the thin air at that height, and had to make several trips tofill Mamer's request for 310 gallons of fuel the Sun-God's fuel capacity was 320 gallons, andthere were only 10 gallons remaining at the time, good for about 22 minutes of flying! One of theBuhl's gas lines had broken, as well, but Walker and Mamer patched it into usable condition.

The hoseman on the tanker tied a flashlight to the end of the refueling hose so it could bespotted, but Walker had a hard time distinguishing the flashlight from the stars. He finally usedthe flames from the exhaust of the refueling plane to help locate the flashlight and did get thehose in a tank, but it became caught in the Buhl's propeller arc and was ripped apart, spewingraw gasoline on the plane. Transferring fuel was a makeshift process, far from sanitary, soconsidering the spillage, the fuel spray, and some engine exhaust flames in 100 mph winds,

8/14/2019 The Flight of the Spokane Sun-God

2/3

8/14/2019 The Flight of the Spokane Sun-God

3/3

3

out across northern Idaho to arrive at Spokane at 2:00 pm on August 20, where some 10,000spectators had turned out to welcome back their adventurers.

Circling Felts Field, Mamer dropped a note marked "Confidential" for Vic Dessert,Chairman of the National Air Derby committee, informing him that one of the magnetos and thespecial oiling system for the rocker arms on three cylinders had quit, and that it would beimpossible for them to make another transcontinental trip. The Air Derby committee conferredand sent up a note with a refueling ship asking Mamer to continue circling Felts Field until 6:00pm. [Ed note: The reason for that four-hour delay in landing is unknown, perhaps to round out thenumber to 120 hours, or to give the Spokane audience a demonstration of refueling. The recordwas for distance traveled it was not a race against the clock.]

Art Walker and Nick Mamer

The wheels of the pioneering Spokane Sun-God finally touched ground at 6:01 pm. Shehad been aloft for 120 hours, one minute and 40 seconds, flown 10,000 air miles, and set aworld's distance record for a non-stop flight of 7,200 point-to-point miles in those remarkable fivedays!

Information for my original article came from accounts in The Spokesman Review (8/14-21/29), One Man's Opinion of the Spokane Aviation Story by Jim McGoldrick, Montana and TheSky by Frank W Wiley, and Robert E & Anita Lorene Smith.