EHITCH
Pre-takeoff checklist
On November 4, 2009, the legendary Evelyn “Mama Bird” Johnson will celebrate her 100th birthday. If you’d like to celebrate the 100th birthday of this flying legend, please send a birthday card to:
Ms. Evelyn Bryan Johnson
Airport Manager
Moore-Murrell Airport
5233 Old Highway 11E
Morristown, TN 37814-1004
There have been women who have flown farther, faster, and higher, but no woman has trained more pilots, logged more hours in as many types and categories of airplanes, given more FAA exams and received more awards than Evelyn Bryan Johnson. She has served as airport manager at Tennessee’s Moore-Murrell Field for more than 50 years and the terminal there is named in her honor. She holds the record for the most flight hours of any woman -- 57,635.4 hours -- a feat which earned her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Johnson soloed on November 8, 1944 in a Piper J3Cub with the minimum 8 hours required before the instructor jumped out leaving the controls to her. She says she’s glad nothing happened because she really didn’t know a lot at the time. She earned a private pilot certificate in June 1945, added a commercial certificate in 1946, became a flight instructor in 1947 and the same afternoon she instructed her first student. She was named a designated FAA examiner in 1952.
Evelyn Johnson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007. She has also been honored by induction in the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame, the Women in Aviation’s International Pioneer Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame. She also received a Bronze Carnegie Medal for saving a helicopter pilot’s life.
I know a birthday celebration is being planned for November 7, so I hope some of you in the Morristown area will chime in with info about how to fly in.
Cheers,
Elizabeth Hitchcock
Ms. Evelyn Bryan Johnson
Airport Manager
Moore-Murrell Airport
5233 Old Highway 11E
Morristown, TN 37814-1004
There have been women who have flown farther, faster, and higher, but no woman has trained more pilots, logged more hours in as many types and categories of airplanes, given more FAA exams and received more awards than Evelyn Bryan Johnson. She has served as airport manager at Tennessee’s Moore-Murrell Field for more than 50 years and the terminal there is named in her honor. She holds the record for the most flight hours of any woman -- 57,635.4 hours -- a feat which earned her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Johnson soloed on November 8, 1944 in a Piper J3Cub with the minimum 8 hours required before the instructor jumped out leaving the controls to her. She says she’s glad nothing happened because she really didn’t know a lot at the time. She earned a private pilot certificate in June 1945, added a commercial certificate in 1946, became a flight instructor in 1947 and the same afternoon she instructed her first student. She was named a designated FAA examiner in 1952.
Evelyn Johnson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007. She has also been honored by induction in the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame, the Women in Aviation’s International Pioneer Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame. She also received a Bronze Carnegie Medal for saving a helicopter pilot’s life.
I know a birthday celebration is being planned for November 7, so I hope some of you in the Morristown area will chime in with info about how to fly in.
Cheers,
Elizabeth Hitchcock
Last edited:
It started as a foam-core display board! This was at the North Central section of the Ninety-Nines meeting in Grand Rapids, so there are a lot of signatures on there!
