Winds Let Finch Take Earhart Trek To Africa

The wind slackened, a “window” opened and Texas millionaire Linda Finch was airborne for Africa on Thursday, retracing the round-the-world flight of Amelia Earhart.

Under cloudy skies, the San Antonio native nosed her plane down the runway at Augusto Severo International Airport and took off from the Brazilian coastal city of Natal, 1,300 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

“The wind is steady and the weather’s good for flying,” Cesar de Souza of Brazil’s Varig airlines said by telephone after Finch lifted off at 4:28 p.m.

For much of the day, the takeoff was uncertain. Stiff headwinds had thwarted her plans to leave a day earlier. But Thursday afternoon, the wind was a steady 11 knots, and Finch gave the go-ahead.

“All she needs is a window when the winds drop below 15 knots,” said Joe da Silva of United Technologies Corp., parent firm of the company that built the engine for Finch’s plane.

Finch is flying a restored Lockheed Electra 10E, a duplicate of Earhart’s twin-engine propeller plane. Flying into strong headwinds would reduce the “safety time” before her fuel ran out.

“Every 10 knots adds an hour to flight time,” Finch said. “With no wind, it should take 13 hours,” with a safety time of about three hours.

The trans-Atlantic hop to the West African nation of Senegal, 2,000 miles away, is the longest of her journey so far. Still, her only special preparations were to sleep late and pack a lunch of sandwiches and fruit.

The 46-year-old businesswoman left Oakland, Calif., on March 17, the same day Earhart took off in 1937.