• Volume 14  Number 1  Winter 2005

Highlights...

Notify me when the next issue comes online


Stay in Touch


About Us


Archive


Home Page
Graphic link. Email this to a friend.

All photos by Brian Forrest, expedition photographer. Click on the thumbnail image to see a full-size print version.


Children with signs greeted the Flight of Discovery crew in Salmon, Idaho, then posed for a photograph with the Bitterroot Range as a backdrop.


Sigfried, the Dog of Discovery, made the journey, too, but not in this open-cockpit Waco. The Great Dane flew with Greg Pellar in the back of his Twin Comanche.


Buffalo graze above the Missouri River, unfazed by the Flight of Discovery planes flying nearby.


Roger Wendlick portrays George Drouillard, a civilian hunter/trapper employed by Lewis and Clark for the original expedition 200 years ago. In this photograph, Wendlick/Drouillard poses with Mike Harding in Vancouver, Wash.


These students at a Mandan Indian tribal school in New Town, N.D., were one of many groups that received a Trunk of Discovery.


Contents of the Trunk of Discovery, valued at $1,000, included a GPS system and other educational tools teachers and students could use to learn more about Lewis and Clark’s expedition.


Helicopter pilot Chin Y. Tu was able to land almost anywhere along the route to allow scientists to collect data.


Mike Harding (left) introduces members of the Flight of Discovery team during one of their stops.


Two Flight of Discovery aviators fly in tandem above the waters of the Missouri River.


The Corps of Discovery called this section of the Missouri River the “White Cliffs.” The rocks consist primarily of sandstone, weathered and worn by the river over thousands of years.


Chinook tribal leaders (right) met the Flight of Discovery team at the completion of the journey in Astoria, Ore.


At stops throughout the journey, various media outlets helped Mike Harding spread the Flight of Discovery message.

Where the Flight of Discovery took them
A Connections Web Bonus

For 13 days last June, during 20 flights, the Flight of Discovery team flew over the footsteps of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery started their expedition near St. Louis 200 years ago. Mike Harding opted for an Indiana beginning near Jeffersonville for historic as well as personal reasons.

“Lewis and Clark actually rendezvoused in Indiana before their journey,” Harding says. “Plus, I’m from Indiana, and that’s where I wanted to start.”

During the flight, the expedition’s Web site, www.flightofdiscovery.com, logged 25,000 hits. Today, the site still averages almost 2,000 hits a week.

Flying no more than about two hours at a time, the Flight of Discovery did in two weeks (get to the Pacific Ocean) what it took Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery two years to accomplish. Including his flight to Indiana to begin the journey and home again to San Diego at its conclusion, Harding logged 6,700 flight miles in 21 days.

Flight of Discovery flight log

  Flight time Approx Distance (Nautical Miles)

Day 1, June 1, 2004
Clark County, Ind. (JVY) to Henderson, Ky. (KEHR)

01:24

154

Day 2, June 2, 2004
Henderson, Ky. (KEHR) to Cairo, Ill. (CIR)

01:30

165

Cairo, Ill (CIR) to Washington, Mo. (M06)

02:12

242

Day 3, June 3, 2004
Layover in Washington, Mo.

 

 

Day 4, June 4, 2004
Washington, Mo. (M06) to Jefferson City, Mo. (KJEF)

01:06

121

Jefferson City, Mo. (KJEF) to Atchison, Kan. (K59)

02:42

297

Day 5, June 5, 2004
Atchison, Kan. (K59) to Council Bluffs, Iowa (CBF)

02:06

231

Council Bluffs, Iowa (CBF) to Sioux Gateway, Iowa (SUX)

01:06

121

Day 6, June 6, 2004
Sioux Gateway, Iowa (SUX) to Circle H Ranch

01:48

198

Circle H Ranch to Pierre, S.D (PIR)

01:24

154

Day 7, June 7, 2004
Pierre, S.D. (PIR) to Mobridge, S.D. (MBG)

01:42

187

Mobridge, S.D. (MBG) to Mandan, N.D. (Y19)

01:12

158

Day 8, June 8, 2004
Mandan, N.D. (Y19) to Sloulin Int’l, Mont. (ISN)

01:30

165

Sloulin Int’l, Mont. (ISN) to Wolf Point, Mont. (OLF)

01:30

165

Day 9, June 9, 2004
Wolf Point, Mont. (OLF) to Fort Benton, Mont. (79S)

01:30

165

Ft. Benton, Mont. (79S) to Great Falls, Mont. (GTF)

00:30

55

Day 10, June 10, 2004
Layover in Great Falls, Mont., due to weather

 

 

Day 11, June 11, 2004
Great Falls, Mont. (GTF) to Three Forks, Mont. (9S5)

 

 

to Twin Bridges, Mont. (7S1) to Salmon, Idaho (SMN)

02:12

242

Day 12, June 12, 2004
Salmon, Idaho (SMN) to Lewiston, Idaho (LWS)

02:24

264

Lewiston, Idaho (LWS) to Hood River, Ore. (4S2)

02:30

275

Hood River, Ore. (4S2) to Vancouver, Wash. (VUO)

00:42

77

Day 13, June 13, 2004
Vancouver, Wash. (VUO) to Astoria, Ore. (AST)

01:30

165

Approximate Total Distance

 

3,601

  © 2005 Purdue Agriculture