Laurel outlook., 1950-03-08
Steno Writes
Sky-Ad Letters
Two Miles High

WI WNlS InyH
INDIANAPOLIS, IND. - It's a
stenographer's business, of course,
to write letters-but when one
writes letters in the sky which are
n mile wide and two miles high,
that certainly should entitle one
to a designation as a unique stem
ographer.
Betty Petit is the stenographer
who writes those huge letters in the
sky. The trim, brown-eyed pilot
secretary is the only skywriter in
Indianapolis and, she believes, the
only woman skywriter in the bust
ness.
A 35-year-old brunei, Betty's en-
tire aerial career has been happen
stance. Born in the Adirondacks,
near Saranac Lake, N. Y, Betty
loved the sky and admired women
filters. But she had spent seven
years helping a music foundation
in Newark, N. j., before she went
overheard for flying.
One of her two sisters got her a
pass on a flight to Montreal. That
did it. Betty started pilots train
ing, got a private license in 1943
and enlisted as a women's air
force service pilot the following
February. After that, she tested
planes. When the Wasps were dis
banded, she stayed on at Napier
Field, Ala, as a Link trainer in
structor for a year.
But the end of the war brought
the end of flying opportunities for
women, she found. She served
stints as an airline co-pilot and
hostess in New Jersey, ferried
small planes for distributors, and
then started to work as a pilot
secretary for a New York coal
wholesaler. Then Betty's boss be-
came too i'll to fly.
Answers AID
Answering an ad in a flying
magazine, she came here in Octo-
Der, 1947, as pilot-secretary to Roi-
lin H. Stewart, an automobile dis
tributor. Stewart already had a
man writing the name of his auto
mobiles in the sky. When the sky
writer decided to be a salesman
instead, Betty Pettitt took over.
After one demonstration, she was
on her own.
81 practiced making little criss-
crosses and lining up letters" she
said. Now she knows the flight
plan for her usual message" by
heart.
"You see, it's all done back
ward and upside down." she ex-
planned. I'm always thinking two
ahead in order to save
A check with the airport weather
man shows whether the winds at
900 feet are under Is miles an
hour, as they should be.
It shouldn't be too dry, either, be-
cause then the smoke is dissipated.
Sometimes a small change in alti-
.ude makes all the difference in the
Betty said. A:
Climbs Two Miles
Climbing two miles, she sights
along a familiar road or fence row.
She pulls the smoke throttle on the :
eft side of the cockpit in the ATS. /:
Betty the skyWriter counts off eight
econds, then shuts off the smoke. -:
The first line of the first letter is
lone. She banks sharply and comes :
Jack to finish the letter. If she's :
rossing a IT." she flies so feet
or the slipstream would dis :
the smoke in the first line. :
She uses the grid pattern Of :
Dads and fields in the open farm
lg country around Indianapolis to :
inc up her sky letters. :
Writing against a background of :
and rivers. Betty finds the :
etter "B" one of the har6eet. So :
49," but rs" isn't bad. :
BY the time she has finished, she
nay be On the way across the city, i:
0 or IL miles away from where she t:
Sometimes she flies a thou !:
and feet up or down to check her
But not until she lands !:
he plane does she know how it :
to people on the ground. :
By then vagrant winds may have :
mixed two letters together, and it's .
all gone in 10 minutes. :
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