YOUTHFUL AVIATRIX VISITS CITY — It's a tiny airplane and a slip of a girl that baffles veteran pilots when they see Sidney Marie Ashton and her Mooney Mite airplane land during her four-stop trip from Kerrville, Tex., to La Jolla, Calif., where she teaches school.

Young Aviatrix Is Air Capital Visitor

By Mary Grice
Wichita Beacon Staff Writer

It's a four and a half hour jaunt from Kerrville, Tex. to Wichita, for Sydney Marie Ashton in her Mooney Mite, a single engine, one seater airplane.

Miss Ashton arrived in Wichita Saturday after completing the 555-mile journey.

The 23-year-old aviatrix began flying last August and did her first solo. flight August 10. She received her airplane as a gift from her grandfather, who promised her, while she was in high school, that if she ever learned to fly he would buy her an airplane.

Miss Ashton, formerly of El Dorado, Kas., teaches physical education at the Episcopalian Bishop's School, a girls' private school, in La Jolla, Calif.

After obtaining her students license in August, Miss Ashton flew to La Jolla' where she teaches. It was there that she received her private license.

The young flyer finds it necessary to make only four stops from her Texas home to La Jolla. She explained that since her plane holds 50 gallons of gasoline the trip could be made with three stops, but with 1,200 air miles to cover short rests are relaxing.

She flys 10,000 feet to clear the mountain ranges and makes it a point never to fly in bad weather.

Since her plane flys from 115 to 120 miles-an-hour she has found it possible to take several "short" weekend trips to points of interest around California. She carries about 25 pounds of luggage which is more than ample for the assorted feminine needs.

Her most amusing experience since the beginning of her career as a flier has been the amazement of veteran pilots and ground crews at "such a young girl flying a small aircraft."

Miss Ashton thinks her most exciting time occurred when she learned that she was to receive her airplane. She said, "I jumped into a pair af biue jeans, went to the Mooney Plant at Kerrville, and helped put the finishing touches on my airplane during the last three or four days it was on the line."

She is undecided whether she will return to teaching or go into aviation as a career.

A native of El Dorado, Kas., Miss Ashton now lives with her parents in Kerrville where her father is chief accountant for Mooney Aircraft.

??? .... in 1952, she has been teaching at the La Jolla school, since that time. She plans to take a three-month vacation in Europe this summer.