A Lady, an Airplane, and a Volcano

By Ed Downs

Erva Marche (Courtesy of Ed Downs)The editorials I usually write for In Flight USA frequently spend a lot of words ranting about what is wrong.  Let’s take a break.  Thanksgiving gave this writer pause to consider the good fortune I have had to spend over half a century in aviation.  But, I also remembered my early legal fights with the, then new, FAA and the help given to me by a remarkable lady, Erva Marché, my Grandmother.  Her life resembles that of the Kate Winslet character in the movie, Titanic. Erva lived a life of aristocracy, adventure, travel, political intrigue, military service and a successful bid into the Hollywood circles of the 1930s.  Her later years were spent as a published writer, newspaper columnist and artist.  She was a great fan of flying and joined me on many flights, including serving as a navigator in an air race!  She even experienced her own version of “The Titanic” on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

I stumbled across one of Erva’s several flying adventures (later published in a Los Angeles newspaper) that say much about a long-lost time when fun and adventure inspired a world without fear of rules and lawsuits. Read and enjoy the perspective of a lady, who was already in her 60s when this was written in June, 1950.