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.Shehad been close to the crowd, and pieces of debris landed on thecrowd and on their cars nearby.She was officially reprimanded,both by the press and by the Department of Commerce, whichfelt that she had put spectators at risk.A replacement autogirowas flown out, and she arrived back in Newark on June 22.Amelia continued to perform stunts and demonstrations inthe autogiro.In early September she was performing at an airshow in Detroit when the autogiro crashed during a landingattempt.The aircraft was destroyed, but Amelia emergedunhurt from the accident.FLYING SOLOWith the autogiro gone, Amelia began looking about fora new project.She had been working on a new book, but wastired from the strenuous lecture tours and of telling whatseemed to her to be the same story over and over.She wanteda new adventure.She also had always felt as if part of herfame had been earned more from chance than from her own Solo Across the Atlantic 49efforts.She had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic,but others had piloted the plane.She had only gone along forthe ride.For some time she had considered the possibility of oncemore crossing the Atlantic, but this time flying herself.By1932, she was ready.She had a new plane a red and goldLockheed Vega that was fully capable of making the cross-ing.She knew that other women were planning to attemptthe trip she wanted to be the first.She discussed the planwith Bernt Balchen, a Norwegian pilot who had accompaniedRoald Amundsen on his 1926 North Pole flight in a dirigible,and had served as pilot on Richard Byrd s South Pole expedi-tion in 1929.Balchen agreed that Amelia was ready, andoffered to serve as her technical adviser.To avoid attracting attention to the project before they wereready, Amelia officially loaned her new Vega to Balchen, allow-ing the rumors to spread that Balchen would be using the planefor his own flight with Lincoln Ellsworth to the South Pole.Balchen set to work, taking the plane to New Jersey s TeterboroAirport to begin preparing it for the flight.Amelia had beenflying the plane for nearly three years.It needed some tuningto be in shape for the long flight.A Lockheed mechanic washired to assist in the preparations, and for the next twomonths a new engine and additional fuel tanks were installed,two new compasses were added, the ailerons (the surfacesnear the trailing edge of the wings that were critical formaneuvers) were replaced, and the instrument panel wassupplemented by a new drift indicator and directionalgyrocompass.The new fuel tanks increased the plane s fuelcapacity to 420 gallons (1,590 liters), making it possible for itto travel about 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers).In addition to preparing her plane for the difficult flight,Amelia had to prepare herself.While continuing to work on hernew book and keep up with her lecture schedule, she addedtraining in instrument navigation and weather training, skills Solo Across the Atlantic 51provided valuable advice on the timing of her first transatlanticflight.She had planned her departure for May 20, but theweather for that period made the trip look doubtful.On the morning of May 20, Amelia went out to TeterboroAirport to discuss the plans with Balchen and practice a bit offlying.Just before noon, her husband phoned.He was inKimball s office, and they were studying the weather maps.There was now clear weather over the Atlantic, with goodvisibility all the way to Harbor Grace in Newfoundland.Amelia conferred with Balchen, and they agreed that sheshould take advantage of the good weather.She drove quickly to her home in Rye, New York, andchanged into her flying uniform riding jodhpurs, awindbreaker, and a silk shirt.She packed her leather flyingsuit, as well as maps, a comb, a toothbrush, and a thermoswith tomato juice.She was back at the airport before 3:00 P.M.,and within 20 minutes she was in the air.Balchen was flyingwhile her mechanic, Eddie Gorski, and Amelia rested in thecabin [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]