W.95  2nd Officer  Roberta Boyd 'Bobby' Sandoz 
 flag usa  b. 29 Apr 1918, Chewelah, WA  12 Aug-42 to 11 Feb-44 

 

ATA Bobby Sandoz Leveaux 

via Ania Stefanicka

 ata roberta leveaux 1943 1943    

 

 

Father: Felix W Sandoz, mother Frances, both of Evans, Stephens, WA

Ed. Colville High, B.A. in Sociology from Whitman College, Walla Walla WA

prev. pilot, secretary, social worker

prev. exp. 310.55 hrs

"In the professional airshows in 1940 she did a solo strip tease performance. She would climb into the plane fully dressed, right down to the spike-heeled shoes and the gloves, take off, and start dropping articles of clothing over the side for the benefit of the audience. The climax was when she landed, descending from the plane still fully clothed."

Address in 1942: 1518 S Hale Ave, Corcoran, CA


Postings: 15FPP, 6FPP

3 accidents, none her fault:

- 14 Mar 1943, whilst taxying her Harvard, the port wing hit a dispersal worker;

- 28 Oct 1943, forced landing, without damage, in a Fairchild Argus after complete engine failure, and

- 9 Feb 1944, forced landing, again without damage, in a Spitfire after she found that she could not throttle back the engine below 3,000 rpm due to a technical defect.

"An excellent ferry pilot. She allows nothing to interfere with the job. Discipline excellent.

m. Aug 1943 in Kensington, London, First Lt. or Capt., King's Royal Rifle Corps, Peter David Leveaux (3 children; inc. Guy David, b. 1944). Peter's father died while serving with the Royal Navy. He and Roberta met in a pub called 'Shepherds' in Mayfair..

Sailed to New York on 21 Aug 1943 with Opal Anderson, Evelyn Hudson, Margaret Lennox and Catharine van Doozer, and after her leave period this is presumably when she made a return transatlantic flight as supernumerary crew, probably in a Hudson.

Sailed back to the US on 2 Dec 1945 on the 'Queen Elizabeth' with fellow ferry pilots Ann Watson Wood, James MacCallum, Margaret Lennox and Gilman 'Ben' Warne.


Roberta and Peter moved to the US in 1949.

Peter (who became a US citizen in 1955) became the eastern sales manager for the Jostens Manufacturing Co. of Owatonna, Minnesota.

They lived in Westport, Connecticut in 1960 and Portland, OR in 1995

Interviewed in 2000 for NASA's Johnson Space Center - see:

https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/NASA_HQ/Aviatrix/LeveauxRBS/LeveauxRBS_3-25-00.htm

 

 


Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):download grey

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