On His Way to Paris : Pilot, 11, Lands in Texas on First Leg of Record Flight

Eleven-year-old Christopher Lee Marshall took off Thursday morning from Montgomery Field in San Diego on the first leg of his journey to Paris in an attempt to become the youngest pilot to cross the Atlantic.

“I’m very happy,” Chris said just before the 8:30 a.m. takeoff. “I am an ambassador to the youth of America, and I want to show all the youth that if I can do my dreams, anyone can.”

Chris, who began flying on his father’s lap at the age of 4, will spend five days in a single-engine Mooney 252 with a co-pilot, retired Navy Cmdr. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, repeating--approximately--Charles A. Lindbergh’s historic flight to Paris in 1927. Federal Aviation Administration regulations will not allow the fifth-grader to fly alone, as Lindbergh did, until his 16th birthday, and, unlike Lindbergh, Chris will put down en route from New York--in Montreal, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.

Just 30 minutes into the flight, over El Centro, the young pilot, who has logged more than 200 flight hours in 24 types of planes and trained for the long-distance flight at Miramar Naval Air Station, was using an oxygen mask as required when a plane flies at an altitude of 11,500 feet or more.

However, the plane dropped in altitude when it hit head winds and thunderstorms. The turbulence made Chris sick, but he nonetheless continued flying, according to Cunningham. The pair were forced to make an unscheduled one-hour fuel stop in El Paso before flying on to Kerrville, Tex., their overnight destination, where they landed at 4:22 p.m. (PDT). and traded in the plane for another model.

Chris also flew by instruments for the first time in his life, verbally assisted by Cunningham, who said Chris “did a good job.”

The two specifically chose a Mooney 252, code-named “Two Zulu Echo,” for the flight because it can go above 12,000 feet, which saves gas and time.

Chris, of the Central California coastal community of Oceano, arrived at Montgomery Field with Cunningham, 46, at 5:30 a.m. for last-minute preparations, such as weighing equipment and packing the plane. The 116-hour journey will get them to France on Monday.

Cunningham, a former instructor at Miramar’s famed Top Gun fighter pilot school and a decorated Vietnam War pilot, said Chris will do all the flying except in an emergency.

Clad in a custom-made blue flight suit and a well-worn pair of high-top Reeboks, Chris will fly only during the day. The two will stay on the ground at night, and, to pass the time, Chris has taken along a book about Lindbergh and his famous flight.