The Spokane Sun God was a 1929 Buhl CA-6 sesquiplane. It was the first airplane to make a non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight. Sponsorship was provided by several groups including Texaco and Spokane businessmen. Pilots were Nick Mamer and Art Walker.
Refueling ships met the Spokane Sun God at predetermined locations. The lack of two-way radios, however, presented a major problem. Instead, notes were dropped from the aircraft. They were also tied to the end of refueling hoses. The fuel hose was dropped through a section removed from the top of the aircraft.
The Spokane Sun God departed Felts Field on Augus 15, 1929. Overloaded by some 800 pounds, it headed south for to refuel over San Francisco’s Mills Field. That went smoothly, unlike others to come. Headwinds required refueling at Rock Springs, Wyoming rather than the planned Cheyenne airport. The challenge of refueling at night and at an altitude of 8,000 feet nearly put an end to the Buhl’s flight. When the plane’s propeller snagged the tanker’s hose, the hose ripped apart. As a result, raw gasoline sprayed the fabric-covered plane. The hose was quickly repaired enabling the Spokane Sun God to take on 310 gallons of gas.
Despite the problems, refueling proved successful. Sun-God flew on to Cheyenne at daybreak for fuel, then to North Platte, their next refueling stop. They made it to Cleveland, in one hop. Coping with rough air over Pennsylvania for four hours left Mamer and Walker physically exhausted as they headed into New York. The sight of hundreds of aircraft flying up to welcome them gave the two pilots a second wind. They roared over Roosevelt Field at 3:47 pm on August 18. They were in the air for 66 hours and 47 minutes.
The Sun God met with a severe storm on the first leg of the return trip. Twice, Maner feared that the Buhl would break apart in the violence. They arrived safely in Cleveland and then on to St. Paul, and Aberdeen, South Dakota to refuel. Smoke from Montana forest fires nearly blinded Mamer and Walker on the way from Aberdeen to Miles City. One of the magnetos on the engine quit en route. Mamer dropped a note at Miles City saying he and Walker were about to give up. He asked for the airfield to be lighted so he could land if necessary.
Because Miles City was not a scheduled refueling stop, volunteers on the ground formed into groups. They gathered five-gallon milk cans from a dairy and made detachable rope slings.. Wives and helpers prepared food. Then, at daybreak on August 20, Frank Wiley flew up with Tommy Matthews secured in the cockpit with a telephone lineman’s belt to meet the Sun-God.
Matthews hung half-way out of the cockpit and lowered milk cans full of gas one at a time. The Sun God eventually took on 120 gallons of fuel. Walker tossed the empty cans into a nearby river and later retrieved by the town folk.
More forest fire smoke proved a challenge for the Sun God but they successfully completed their record flight. They touched down in Spokane at 2:00 pm on August 20. Ten thousand spectators welcomed the adventurers back.
The Sun God remained aloft for 120 hours, one minute and 40 seconds. It flew 10,000 air miles and set a world’s distance record for a non-stop flight of 7,200 point-to-point miles days!
(Digested from Richard L. Meister Jr.’s article in Spokane’s Our Community Today, Feb 2000)