20 July 1933

Aviation, , , , , , , , , ,
Wiley Post's Lockheed Model 5C Vega, NR105W, Winnie Mae, after a landing accident at Flat, Alaska. (Unattributed)
Wiley Post’s Lockheed Model 5C Vega, NR105W, Winnie Mae, after a landing accident at Flat, Alaska. Standing in front of the Winnie Mae, at left, wearing a hat and overalls, and with a pipe in his right hand, is John Beaton. Beaton was a miner whose discovery of gold at Flat began the Iditarod Gold Rush. Post is not seen in this image. (Unattributed)

20 July 1933: At 11:58 a.m. (17:58 UTC) on the fifth day of his solo around-the-world flight, Wiley Post took off from Khabarovsk, Siberia, heading toward Nome, Alaska, 2,416 miles (3,888 kilometers) to the east-northeast (great circle route).

A very tired Wiley Post photographed at Flat, Alaska, after Winnie Mae has been repaired. (University of Alaska image identifier UAF-1998-129-3)
A very tired Wiley Post photographed at Flat, Alaska, after Winnie Mae has been repaired. (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Post missed his destination and, exhausted, became lost. He flew over Alaska for approximately seven hours before sighting a remote U.S. Army Signal Corps radio station at Flat, Alaska, a small gold mining town located along the Iditarod Trail in southwestern Alaska.

Post landed his Lockheed Model 5C Vega, NR105W, The Winnie Mae of Oklahoma, on a small landing field at the eastern edge of the town. The airplane’s wheels sank into the soft surface and Winnie Mae nosed over, damaging its propeller, engine cowling and right landing gear strut. Wiley Post was unhurt.

The International News Service (INS) reported:

. . . Utter exhaustion which numbed his mind so that he could not properly pilot his course caused him to become lost for seven hours over Alaska yesterday after he had been in the air more than 22 hours on his 3,000-mile hop from Siberia to Alaska during which he battled the most adverse weather conditions, he revealed today.

Sighting the Flat radio station caused him to land here. He said that he could at least get his directions again. He ran into soft ground on the landing field, nosing over, breaking his right wheel strut, damaging the engine cowling and valves and bending the propeller. Post was uninjured. . . .

A replacement propeller was flown in from Fairbanks and repairs were made. He continued the following day, taking off at 7:28 a.m., local.

The “Winnie Mae,” Wiley Post’s Lockheed Model 5C Vega, NR105W, after nosing over at Flat, Alaska, 20 July 1933. (Unattributed)

© 2016, Bryan R. Swopes

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3 thoughts on “20 July 1933”

  1. What a brave tough man! Like all Lockheeds, the airplane was tough as well. Imagine today it would take weeks to declare the airplane airworthy or maybe declare a total loss. Different time back then.

  2. When I was growing up, Wiley’s brother Joe was our next door neighbor. Another brother, Gordon, came to visit Joe every summer. Starting in 1955, Gordon bought a new Ford Thunderbird every year. Joe’s grandson and I have been best friends since we were toddlers.

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