Truly Tiny Airports
What is the smallest airport you have flown into?
In the 1960s in southern Arizona, there was a landing strip inside Sierra
Vista. It was a cow pasture. If the owner wanted to land during the day
he would buzz the field and the cows would move out of the way. He tried
not to be gone after sunset but if he had to land at night he would buzz
his house. His wife would get into the family station wagon and back up
the length of the pasture. He would land aiming into the headlights.
In a nearby town, an airport owner (almost as small an airport) had a feud
with someone. He bought large sacks of flour, took them aloft, and
"bombed" the other guy's house. I understand he was brought up on serious
charges for that one.
When I visited my sister, a private pilot, in Hawaii, one of my great
thrills was having her fly me around the islands. We wanted to visit the
leper colony on Molokai which is, essentially, a butte rising from the
surface of the Pacific, with a spit of land on one side. She flew us
there, and landing required that she fly straight at the cliff, turn at the
last minute and set down on a strip which ended where waves rose up from
the ocean. I was having a great adventure. We taxied to a stop and just
as I was going to thank her for the magnificent landing, she said, in a
tiny, awed voice, "That is the shortest runway I have ever landed on." We
both got out with shaky legs.
Deanne
{ Previous Letter
| This Week's Index |
Next Letter }
{ Main Letters Page }
