When Milton Had An Airport - The Milton Flying Club

For 30 years, from 1941 to 1971, Milton had an airport.
But first, it had a flying club.

The Milton Airfield was opened in 1941 on the Harry Clemens farm south of Milton.   During World War Two it was used as an instructional base for air force cadets from Susquehanna University. In  1960s, there was hope that Milton, Lewisburg, and Watsontown would be able to form a regional airport, possibly at the Milton site.   Enough funding could not be secured and in 1971 the last plane left the Milton Airport.  The contents were sold at public sale, the runways were plowed up, and the hangar was used to store farm equipment.

The Milton Flying Club

The Milton Flying Club first met at the Mary-Ann tea room in Milton, in  of 1937.  It began with 21 members.  At one of their first meetings, motion pictures on the development of aviation were shown by Harry Jenkins, and Rev. Yoxtheimer, manager of the Sunbury airport, gave an interesting talk on the qualifications necessary to obtain various pilots licenses.

Miss Florence Bogle was elected as their first president.   They met at the Milton YMCA.  Francis Woodling was Vice-President, Mrs Charles Strunk was secretary-treasurer.

In 1941, John Waldron, Milton garage owner, was one of the first members of the Milton Flying club to purchase his own plane.  He bought a Piper Cub Cruiser from the Piper Aircraft Factory in Lock Haven.  The plane was kept at the Milton Airport.

The Milton Airport

In  May of 1941 the Milton Flying Club  had taken an option on 100 acres of desirable land just south of the borough, on the Harold Clemens Farm.   The location of the Milton Airport would be just east of the Pennsylvania Railroad Tracks and south of Shippers Car Line Property.

A large 8 plane hangar was constructed, on the field.The recreation building, when completed, would house the office, workshop, and instruction room. Future plans included two single hangars, in which the planes of Alan Stamm & John Waldron would be stored.

 President of the 1941 Milton flying club was Allen Stamm of Turbotville, Donald S. Cawley of Milton was secretary and treasurer.

  

In  March of 1942, 11 planes were scheduled to be moved from Roosevelt Field on Long Island to the Milton airport, to be used in a civilian pilot training program, instructing students in cross country flying in preparation for further training at preliminary U.S. Air Bases.

Several pilots, two licenses mechanics, and 12 advanced students were scheduled to arrive with the planes, to run the Milton Pilot Training Unit. John Abiuso, Thomas "Dan" Henry, and Henry Neidig  were all to be instructors at this facility.

The Milton airport was selected for this training because it is one of the smoothest landing fields in this section.  The sandy soil and openness of the location, with even terrain surrounding the approaches made it an idea training site. The Hangar at the Milton fields was not large enough to accommodate all the planes, so some would have to be parked outside until other arrangements could be made. The road leading to the hangar was scheduled to be widened in the spring, and telephone service was to be installed. 

In April of 1943, Members of the US Army Air force training battalion at Susquehanna University began flight training at the Milton Airport

After the war, Harry Neidig took over operations at the Milton Airport.

In 1947 the Milton Borough Council rejected a proposal to take over the Milton Airport.

In July of 1950, Milton held it's first major program.  More than 3,000 people came to watch Dick Cooper, prominent parachutist, make "double delay jumps", landing in designated spots in front of the hangar. A large number of passengers were taken for rides in the Stintson Wagon, Cub Super Cruiser, and Luscomb Silvair.

Arrange an afternoon excursion to the Races at Pimlico

3 persons for $12.50 per a passenger, round trip

Leave Milton at Noon, Arrive Pimlico 12:45

May 1, 1947

Pimlico is a horse track in Baltimore MD

$12.50 would be about $143 today.

Crashes  & Incidents

In 1942, Turbotville Mayor Allan Stamm (also owner of the Turbotville Block and Pipe Company) escaped when hie Ballanca cruiser plane nosed over as he was making a landing at the Milton Airport.  Stamm was president of the Milton Flying club.  He reported that the right wheel of his plane cut four or five inches into the loose sand on the field, causing it to nose over and break the propeller.

Joe Diblin recalls flying from the Milton airport during hunting season, and having a hunter aim a rifle at the plane.  He couldn't tell if the hunter fired or not. When he returned to the airport, he told Harry Neidig about the experience .Nedig, who owned the Milton airport at the time, recently had had a similar experience.  A hunter had shot at his plane and pierced the wing.

In October of 1947, Delvin Fruit & Guy Mensch took a Piper Cub out of Milton airport.  Five minutes after take off, they crashed into the field of the Glyn Baker farm near the Lewisburg Penitentiary. Mrs Grace Auman, daughter of the Bakers, and also an airport employee, was at her parents farm when the accident occurred.   She had seen the plane in the sky, and then heard the crash.  But she did not see the plane fall.  Mrs Auman ran to the scene, and found the  nose and body of the plane were "deep in the earth". 

She crawled under the wing of the plane and dragged Mensch from the wreckage.  There were children nearby, she sent them to various neighborhood places for help.

Both men were experienced flyers, and the cause of the crash, which destroyed the plane, was at the time unknown.  Both men were thought to have internal injuries, and were taken to Geisinger.

In 1950, two Bucknell University students rented a plane from the Milton airport, and used it to spot deer in the mountains.  As they skimmed the plane over the tree tops, the landing gear caught in the trees and the plane crashed in the woods.

The Seabee Plane

"A familiar sight in the Sunbury area in recent days has been the oddly-shaped Seabee from Milton with Harry Neidig at the controls" reported local newspapers, in March of 1947.  

The confluence of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna River provided an idea landing and take off spot for commercial pilots training.   Similar work can be accomplished on the west branch at Milton, but on when the wind is moving parallel with the river. The four-place craft was powered by a 215 horsepower Franklin motor and was "unique in design".  It appeared to have a large piece of fuselage cut away behind the wings.  The Propeller was to the rear of the motor, and acted as a pusher.

The Seabee could also be a land place, with it's retractable wheels used for regular landings.  

In the spring of 1947, Philip Ellsworth, manager of the Milton Airport, planned to take the Seabee on flights to Canada.

This is NOT the plane that was at Milton, but it's an idea of what it would have looked like.

Joe Diblin recounts some of his experiences with the Seabee planes, in articles he wrote for the Daily Item.

"We were in a bad situation; in this case “we” refers to the Seabee amphibian, four Boy Scouts, yours truly, and some hidden rocks in the Susquehanna River. It was tempting to attempt a blast of power to get off the rocks, but the possibility of gashing a hole in the hull and sinking in the middle of the river caused some serious thinking. As a result, the four scouts were asked to remove their trousers and get into the chest-deep water and lift the plane off the rocks. They were scarcely back in the plane when I took off before we sank. The scouts thought it was thrilling."

And another:

"On one occasion, in the spring when the river was high, I was doing practice landings and takeoffs just south of the Lewisburg Bridge. A Bucknell co-ed and her boyfriend stood on the river bank using the universal hitch-hiking signal. Skimming over the them, the prop was moved to reverse pitch, which acted like a brake and stopped the plane as the prop was moved to neutral. Opening the wide front hatch, I said, “Come aboard.” They acted mesmerized and obeyed as if in a daze. Fastening their seat belts quickly, I took off and circled over the university. My passengers gazed at the scene below like little kids experiencing their first ride on a Ferris wheel. We returned to the river, landed smoothly and skimmed again to the river bank. During the entire flight, neither student had uttered a word. As they stepped out of the forward hatch, the co-ed looked back and in halting fashion said, “Uh, gee thanks.” "

The Airport Closed In 1971

In 1971, the equipment, parts, and machinery from the machine shop, were sold at public sale.The land was rented to F. Parson Kepler, who will use the former hangars as storage sheds for farm machinery.   Federal aviation administration regulations required that all "evidences of an airport" were to be removed immediately, including plowing up the airstrips (or at least placing large xs across them until they could be plowed up.)

Watsontown, Milton, and Lewisburg had hoped to all work together to form a regional airport, but the funds just could not be raised.

Reduced Rates For the Milton Airport

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The Flying Farmers Landed in Milton twice read about them here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/05/when-flying-farmers-landed-in-milton.html

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Find More History & Stories Of Milton here

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/milton-pa.html

And find more local history here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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