Vecihi Hürkuş's Travel to Anatolia That Flys People: Part-2

September 3, 1931. We are leaving Bolu

We thanked the people of Bolu early in the morning, said goodbye to their sincere farewell and took off. When it came to crossing the mountains on our route with the tours I made to rise above Bolu, I turned the plane to the north and started flying at an altitude of 2,500 meters. The ground is dark green, very wavy, a beautiful landscape in the name of nature, there is a pleasant smell of pine in the air that inflates our lungs. Below us is a large space clad in dark colors. It is a forest like the sea, where there is not a single point in the name of the same landscape, soil and stone for 120 kilometers up to the Black Sea.

I must admit, my emotions were filled with excitement. As a pilot who always used to keep the places suitable for landing out of my attention as a backup precaution on my flights, I was right to feel this excitement. Because in this endless area, I could not see a single point suitable for descent, including creeks. Although I was under the sea, not the forest, and I could safely sit on the branches of any tree in case of engine failure, but how would I get out of this jungle?

My excitement was born from this dream nightmare. My ears were more sensitive to the sound of my groaning engine. I was constantly rising, wishing to see the blue waters of the Black Sea from about 3,000 meters.

Eregli

An hour after my departure from Bolu, we were on Ereğli, this cute piece of dormitory beaten by blue waters gave me peace of mind, a few ships in the harbor, the white foam of the waves crashing on the shore added color to this beauty.

Since the people of Ereğli had been informed about our visit in advance, they had gathered in heaps on the streets and on the beach. The people, who thought we could land, were preparing for the ceremony with flags in their hands and fighting over the confetti we had scattered. I wandered a lot here, too, to find a suitable place for landing, and there was not a single flat spot in the wavy and wooded areas. The beach was narrow and steep, completely covered with coarse pebbles. Ereğli was already a place to visit from the air in the program, I said goodbye to the people with a few low turns, said goodbye and started to follow the coast in the east. The coastal crevices carved by the violent waves have carved such deep cavities in some places that it is impossible to see the coastal gullies under the slopes. We approached Zonguldak by admiring and watching this power of nature and greeting all the villages we came across on our way, even the small fishing huts we saw on the beach.

Zonguldak

The land of black gold, seeing such a beautiful city on the Black Sea coast, which has adopted such a modern understanding and civilization, gives a great relief to the soul of the citizen. Unfortunately, it does not have a single landing spot, but it is perfect for air sports and sailing flights. What is human determination and will not capable of? Here are the works of the highway administration that overthrew the mountains, but at that time we lacked today's opportunities.

Yes, Zonguldak is a region full of mountains and hills, a city built on steep rocks. Even the inner city transportation roads were in the form of a stepped staircase, and not a single car could be seen in the upper reaches. While I was looking for a place to land in and around the city to announce our aviation cause, we were scattering our confetti while greeting the people.

In our program that day, four townspeople would be visited from the air and landed in Cide and stayed there. Accordingly, there are two more towns, Bartın and Amasra, visited, and there are no landing sites there either. Considering this, we continued on our way and offered our greetings by throwing confetti at all our citizens, as we do in every residential area.

jedi

Finally, we arrive in Cide, where we will stay. This beautiful touristic bud of the Black Sea has a state of being hidden among the green mountains rising in the south, as if it were afraid of the big waves that foamed up on them. The people and schoolchildren of this seaside home, which was small but embraced the riches of nature, were mingling with joy. After greeting this happy being, we came to a small flat prepared as a square, this flat between the beach beach and the trees was something like a threshing square.

The townspeople, who thought that the plane could land at any point at any time, like a bird, chose this flat for the public to see the next plane better, not for the flight safety of the plane, although they had instructions. It takes extraordinary care to land in a place like this. I wanted to find another place rather than crash my plane, but I don't have enough fuel to continue the flight.

We met with the Cideans and got along quickly, aviation is the only thing talked about. While I was telling something from what I knew, the sensitivity of the listeners was very remarkable. Even small children were aware of the daily newspapers. I was amazed by this maturity. Especially their tendency to go deep in speeches on nationalism issues were important notes in my memories. The speeches were not in vain, the aviation case and national defense concerns caused the people of Cide to congregate in front of the cashier of the institution branch. We spent that night in the same friendly atmosphere.

4 September 1931 Towards Ayancık Skies

When we arrived in the morning, we learned that our citizens, who saw the plane for the first time, started to fill the square as of the dark of the morning, among them were the townspeople and villagers. After heartily thanking for this deep interest, we took off without public flights due to the small size of the square. We started the flight that day.

The air was very calm, not even a leaf was moving. The first stop in our program would be Ayancık and our accommodation would be Sinop. We flew to Ayancık under the same conditions, we started to visit the people of this beautiful seaside town, the people on the beach were gathered in the tribune of the football field. There was a festive atmosphere, decorated with flags everywhere.

Necessary preparations were made for the landing of the plane and, as per the instructions, smoke-producing substances were also burned in the middle of the playing field, but this preparation was a waste of effort. Because both the field was very small and surrounded by a wall, it was in a state that did not allow landing and take-off. When I saw this situation, I searched around in the hope of finding another place on the beach, unfortunately, I could not find a field. I wrote down the reasons for the impossibility of landing on a piece of paper and threw it into the community, and I also expressed my sadness at not being able to show my plane. While I was doing these researches with very close flights over the community, my friend Hamid was scattering confetti and offering our greetings and thanks. We turned our direction to Sinop and continued our flight.

We couldn't land in Ayancık, we continued on to Sinop

The general view of the land extending to the east is seen as a natural harbor, wrapping the sea in a horseshoe shape. The center of the city is in the narrowest part of this language, the northern and southern coasts are decorated with mansions, a legendary landscape with historical artifacts stands out.

Historical, yes, Sinop dungeons built with thick walls. A building that expresses the painful memories of history! In the face of this scene, my childhood and the great pain of my relative brother Mehmet, whose lungs were rotting in these dungeons, come to life in my brain. A very young lieutenant, age nineteen, graduated from the Military Academy, was thrown into these dungeons with the stamp of joining the Young Turks. It is said that there is no survivor from these dungeons, and it was the same for my poor brother.

Now I think about it, there is nothing but painful memories of the past. Instead of the Ottoman Empire, there is a state based on national sovereignty, there is freedom and work instead of prison and exile. This sacred success of the Great Turkish Revolution is so great and honorable that it makes you forget the past and its pains.

As a matter of fact, I was able to mask those sad tales of history by flying freely and peacefully that day over those historical dungeons. With these thoughts, I was greeting my citizens from Sinop and my friend Hamid was throwing confetti from the Turkish Aeronautical Association.

After this long demonstration flight, we landed on a hollow plain on the hill to the east of the city. This field, which was used as a lake in the winter and a stadium by drying up in the summer, was filled with Sinopians who welcomed our plane with care and decorations with our flags.

Here, too, we met with great enthusiasm. It's a real pleasure to see the public's interest in the aviation cause during these visits. The meetings and speeches we held in this sincere atmosphere received heartfelt appreciation, and donations for the benefit of the institution's purpose continued with enthusiasm, as everywhere else. We spent the night with very good observations among our citizens of Sinop.

Our visiting trip, which continued after that, was progressing successfully in accordance with the general lines of our program, and we were greeted everywhere with the enthusiasm of our people. According to my notes in my memoirs, I found the Turkish citizen's feelings of love and interest towards the aviation cause much higher than I expected. For this reason, we continued on our way by saluting cities, towns and villages, even little houses in the desolate mountains and shepherds chasing herd, if they were on our way.

In Bafra, Samsun and in this region, our rich towns such as Ladik, Havza, Merzifon, Vezirköprü, and the surrounding villages, our people were flying by using every suitable opportunity, either by landing or by visiting them from the air, scattering the confetti of the society, and we were trying to satisfy the desires of the people for flight in the places we landed.

Samsun and Fatsa

Our visit to Samsun was very colorful and showed itself as a brotherly union. The meadow, which was decided to be the airport in the east of the city, was filled with Samsun people like a real holiday place. These enlightened people missed aviation dearly. Satisfying their flight requests was not an easy thing, I flew a lot, then I talked a lot, the conclusion I came to was very productive for my institution as well as for me.

After Samsun, Çarşamba, Terme, Ünye and Fatsa were places we visited with the same tempo and offered our love and gratitude with our confetti. Our Fatsa accommodation was a large area suitable for the landing prepared on the beach, I landed comfortably. The ceremony was very interesting, the people's wishes to fly were processed with wider possibilities and the institution's cashier was enriched by public donations.

(To be continued)