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August 1976 QST
 Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL
for info). All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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 Prior to seeing this new tidbit in
a 1976 issue of QST magazine, I had no idea that the wife of Peanuts
comic strip creator Charles Schulz was an airplane pilot - and that is with
having been a huge Peanuts fan for decades. Other than one of Snoopy's alter
egos being that of a World War I flying ace, there is no other theme of
airplanes in the strip, although according to this article, there was a
1975 Sunday comic strip
with Peppermint Patty and Marcie flying atop Snoopy's doghouse, from California
to Michigan. The Straits Area Radio Club
(W8GQN) provided communications for the Powder Puff Derby, aka the
Women's Air Derby,
race in which
Mrs. Jean Clyde Schulz took part in 1970, 1971, and 1975. It was a very long
course - more than 2,000 miles as the crow flies, spanning from Riverside,
California, to Boyne Falls, Michigan.
She didn't win,
unfortunately.
Strays: Powder Puff Derby
Shown kneeling in front of their rig at the Boyne Falls
airport are: A guest, W8RPN, WB80TO and W8A YZ. Standing are: W8BTN, W8HKL,
W3GTC (national chairman, Powder Puff Derby Communications Group), and Robert
McKown, club secretary. Other operators included WA4JLE/8, W8BTX, W80AF, W8IAR,
K8AEA, WB8HSLand WB8REH.
The W8GQN Straits Area Radio Club provided
communications for the recent annual Powder Puff Derby, a four-day race of female
fliers. Club members manned a van set up at the terminus of the race, the
Boyne Falls, Michigan,
airport, that kept the principals in touch with intervening check points between
the starting point, Riverside, California, and Boyne Falls. On a Sunrise-to-sunset duty
schedule divided into three shifts, oper-ators worked in pairs, using 20, 40
and 80 meters. The traffic count totaled 708. Since one of the feminine fliers
was Mrs. Charles Schulz, wife of the
Peanuts cartoonist, the Derby attracted national attention in a unique way.
Adding to the fun were a stuffed Snoopy and his little bird pal, Woodstock,
who flew in one plane, while the pilot of another dressed as the Red Baron.
Posted July 22, 2020
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