AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2015 - 16

PROFICIENT PILOT

No place to land

BY BARRY SCHIFF

Are airports an endangered species?
'THE TWILIGHT ZONE' was a popular television series

BARRY SCHIFF

started flying
at Clover Field
(Santa Monica
Municipal Airport)
in California in 1952
when he was
14 years old.

16 | AOPA PILOT April 2015

from 1959 through 1964. The brainchild of Rod Serling,
it was a strange mix of horror, science fiction, fantasy, drama, comedy, and superstition-and often had
surprise endings. Many of us can recall at least one episode that made an indelible impression. In my case, it
was episode 54, The Odyssey of Flight 33, which first
aired on February 24, 1961.
The story opened with a Global Airlines Boeing
707 passenger flight en route from London to New
York. During cruise flight, groundspeed suddenly rose
sharply. This was accompanied by severe turbulence
that ended with a brilliant flash of light. Upon arriving in the New York area and unable to contact anyone
on the radio, Capt. Farver descended to visual conditions beneath the overcast only to discover that there
was no airport to be found-nor were there any signs
of civilization. There were no manmade objects of any
kind. There were only grazing dinosaurs.
Flight 33 had passed through the "time barrier."
The crew agreed that their only hope of returning to the present was to climb back to altitude and
repeat their penetration of the "time barrier." Instead
of returning to 1961, however, Flight 33 found itself
flying over the 1939 World's Fair. There were no runways long enough to safely land a Boeing 707, and the
tower controller at LaGuardia Airport did not understand what the crew meant when they identified
themselves as a jet airplane. The captain decided to
again penetrate the "time barrier" for another attempt
at returning home. Serling provided no resolution for
Flight 33, and we were left with the impression that the
aircraft had become an airborne Flying Dutchman, the
legendary ghost ship that could never make port and
was doomed to sail the oceans forever.
Impossible? Yes, of course, but haunting nevertheless. I found it disturbing because many general aviation
airports are threatened and seem to be disappearing at
an alarming rate. For this reason, it is not inconceivable
that someday we, too, might descend from the sky and
find ourselves without a place to land.
Some of the airports I used to visit are long gone, but
I had no idea that so many airports have been closed and
seemingly forgotten until I stumbled upon a fascinating and educational website (www.airfields-freeman.
com). This is a collection of 1,900 airports from all 50
states that no longer exist. The site, however, is much

more than a list of closed and abandoned airports. Each
listing contains data, photographs, excerpts of old aeronautical charts, historical information, and much more.
This fascinating project is a labor of love for
Virginia resident Paul Freeman, a 20-year private
pilot and aerospace engineer specializing in ADS-B
technology. Some years ago he became intrigued by
the abandoned airports he discovered on aeronautical charts and began to investigate these areas, initially
using Google Earth. Being a history buff, he decided to
start a website dedicated to closed and often forgotten
airports. He was encouraged to expand the site by the
many who contribute photographs and other memorabilia relating to these airports.
One of my favorite airports used to be the Palm
Desert Airpark near Palm Springs, California, a place
where you could land on sweet-smelling grass, walk a
few feet to the motel, and jump into the pool. I looked
it up on Freeman's website and found many nostalgic reminders of what once was. For example, there
is a photograph of actors Brian Donlevy and William
(Hopalong Cassidy) Boyd dining in the restaurant
overlooking a row of airplanes there. Another is a
photo taken from the 1963 motion picture, It's a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World. It shows Mickey Rooney and
Buddy Hackett in the tiedown area of Palm Desert during the filming of a scene. Included also are brochures
and other interesting material from when the airport
was popular and vital.
An especially well-done section deals with Chicago's
Meigs Field. The provided material and photographs
about this storied airport are enough to fill a book.
Also interesting is the section about the Hughes
Airport in Culver City, California, that belonged to
the reclusive billionaire and was the longest private
runway in the world. Included are fascinating photographs showing developmental activity that took place
at the adjacent Hughes facility.
In addition to being an invaluable historical reference, Freeman's effort is a reminder that GA airports
could become an endangered species. Almost any small
airport-and some large ones-have the potential to be
threatened with extinction. Unfortunately, an airport
closed is an airport gone forever, although it will be
memorialized in Freeman's website.
AOPA
WEB

www.barryschiff.com

http://www.airfields-freeman.com http://www.airfields-freeman.com http://www.barryschiff.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2015

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