Unusual Attitudes: A Lockheed Lodestar Love Affair

Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 01:42 AM ET

Verified

** Flying the Lodestar always made me feel like
Katharine Hepburn, Amelia Earhart and
Jacqueline Cochran, all rolled into one.**

Key Takeaways:

The author expresses a profound affection for the Lockheed 18 Lodestar, describing it as the most exotic and glamorous aircraft she's flown, superior to the DC-3 in speed and responsiveness, and one that evokes a vintage Hollywood persona.
She recounts an amusing incident where she playfully led a man to believe she flew her Lodestar to Cleveland for gourmet groceries.
A chaotic anecdote describes the author's late-night confrontation with a noisy dragster at a Louisiana motel, resulting in an ice-bucket attack, an angry mob, and a tense flight home.

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The following article is from Flying’s May 2013 issue.

My pilot certificate has some eclectic type ratings — a Lockheed 18 Lodestar, the Fairchild Swearingen SA-227 (Metroliner or San Antonio Stovepipe), the Douglas DC-3 and then there’s that commercial hot air balloon thing. But I gotta tell you, the most exotic flying machine, the one that makes me feel most like an aviator, is the Lockheed Lodestar. And, hands-down, it’s the one I’d most love to fly again.