Dewitt Spain airport from MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER, November, 2008

With parking, long walks, longer lines at security the freedom of the skies seems downright oppressive. But there is an alternative to airlines and it is convenient to downtowners. Just one minute’s flying time from downtown,  the skies of the MidSouth wait those with a bit of adventure flowing through their systems.  

General DeWitt Spain Airport (more on the name later) began as an idea in 1928 when the Memphis Chamber of Commerce Engineering Committee suggested turning Mud Island into Memphis’ Airport. Such a setup would have been great for downtowners when Charles Lindberg’s “Sprit of Saint Louis” was the standard, but considering today’s 3 am flights of MD-11’s out of Memphis International, most downtown residents would agree those city planners of the 1920’s made the right decision to head to South Memphis.

But there was and is a place for small airplanes and in 1959 Memphis Downtown Airport took off about where Mud Island Park is today. It even had a great slogan: “You’re strictly uptown when you land downtown.” A ferry boat took travelers from the Island to the cobblestones, and then it was just a short walk to the offices of Memphis’ city center. Private pilots who worked downtown and business travelers had the perfect arrangement. By 1961, 30 planes were landing per day, according to newspaper reports.

 But it did not last. By the mid 1960’s Interstate 40 was scheduled to cross the Island. Airport owners fought the I-40 Bridge, but in August, 1970, the last plane departed the island airport. Quickly the airport authority purchased available land just to the north of the island so downtown commuters could once again have their landing strip back. The following May downtown was flying again, honoring local war hero General DeWitt Spain who died in 1969.

Today M01, as it is known to pilots, is 224 feet above mean sea level and always open. Last year the airport authority reports 85,120 aircraft movements and 170,238 gallons of fuel sold. This airport is referred to “general aviation” as opposed to military or scheduled flights so commercial passengers and cargo can come in and out but there are no scheduled runs. The 3,800 foot-long north-south runway can handle up to small jets such as Falcons and Cessna Citations.  In addition to planes, another attraction is the dream of flight. Downtown Aviation helps student’s dreams take off.

“It takes most people around 50 or 60 hours to get a private license,” owner Jay King says. And he adds most people pass. “It depends on their motivation. We find most dedicated 60-70 percent complete and get there license,” he says. Private pilots learn text book-type material on things like mechanics of the plane, meteorology and some physics, but the bulk of the instructions is given in the sky and learning the finesse of handling the plane. Taking off, flying and landing are surprisingly simple. It is what to do when things go wrong is a major component of instruction. Someone once said the loneliest person in the world is a pilot in trouble. It does not take imagination to see why.  

Flight training costs anywhere from $110 to $225 per hour, depending on the airplane and airplane fuel, like auto fuel have also spiked. Last check it was $5.15 per gallon. But despite the increase in costs, he says business is taking off.

Karen Noronha from India came to Memphis and attends the school full time. A falling dollar makes American schools attractive to internationals.  “I wanted to learn to fly. I am chasing a dream and the school is very good.” She says. Currently she is flying 4 seat Cessna 172’s, but her goal is the big planes. 

“I started from scratch,” she says. “I just got here knowing nothing about aviation or anything related. I come from a back ground of mass media advertising.” How does flying make her feel? “Energized!” she says, with a huge smile on her face.

“Flying is the greatest thing to happen to me,” says fellow student Unmesh Dutt, “except for marriage!” he quickly adds. He, also from India, started in January and says he is one of the first international students at the school. Dutt remembers his first time to fly solo. “I got to solo after 15 hours. Some solo after 23 hours, some solo after 11.” Dewitt Spain offers a small airport with lower costs but it is close enough to a major airport to get experience talking to a control tower. “The climate in Memphis is similar to India’s,” Dutt says.

King walks to the Cessna 152’s tightly tied down to the ramp like they are ready to jump into the air by themselves. “In these planes you get to Nashville in about an hour and a half,” he says. “that’s about a 150 nautical miles. We have bigger planes in the fleet that can travel a little faster.” Last March he flew about 3 hours to see the University of Memphis Tigers play in San Antonio. And they didn’t even need to stop in Dallas! 

The social aspect is of small airports is obvious on a weekend morning.  Steve Price is a regular. “Small airports are like country clubs the guys go to the country club to have lunch its a social place,” Price says. “Small airports are like that for people who like airplanes. We don’t fly everyday.  If someone is doing work we will go in and talk about flying. We don’t lock the hangers. If something is missing like a bar of soap you figure someone borrowed it. And it is returned.”

Price is a retired truck driver who both fixes and flies airplanes. He and friend Barney Hart show off a Vans RV-3 they just finished repairing. “There’s lots of camaraderie at the airport,” Hart says.

Riding to the north end of the airport, Jerry Carter is working on a few of his crafts. “I built a gyro copter because I wanted a new project,” he says, showing something that looks like child of an ultra light and a helicopter.  “This is called an auto gyro. There are not a whole lot of them.  It was built before the helicopter. There is no power to the rotor. It free spins it flies like a kite the air comes from beneath the rotor and causes the rotor to spin. It is safe and  easier to fly than a helicopter  but it can’t hover. It can almost hover.”

Karen Noronha describes the feeling flying gives her

 

 

Carter and Price head out towards the runway. Six planes take off – one every four seconds- to fly in formation. Once the planes meet up, the formation looks like something out of World War II movie as they buzz (legally) the runway and fly over the farms of Arkansas just across the Mississippi. Dr. David Peeler, a Memphis Physician, is in the lead. “Formation is a neat,” he says.  “At first it’s difficult like your floating with other people in space. It’s like watching birds fly. If I am in the lead they all follow me. Flying is like working out or jogging, it’s more fun if you do it with someone else.”

 Aviation enthusiasts are well familiar with the Commemorative Air force.  The collection of World War I and II aircraft was formed to keep the spirit of those early aviators alive forever. One of those war birds makes its nest at Dewitt Spain, thanks to Dr Peeler.

“This is the Hawker Sea Fury,” says crew chief Jay Taylor, “This particular plane saw service in Korea and damaged in Korea. Dr. David Peeler bought it and finished the restoration on it and donated it to the Commemorative Air force about 3 years ago. We put a motor on it and got it back in the air in Oct of 2006,” he remembers. 

“All the countries worked during World War II worked to build a better plane,” Peeler says. “Aviation Changed rapidly. That airplane’s top speed is 485 miles per hour - there’s nothing else with a propeller that can come close.” But within a few years jets made this plane obsolete.

The plane looks new and flies like it once did, but that is the only similarity to its past. Its  original crew in its military years was 25 people. Today it is three. The peaceful Dewitt Spain airport of 2008 contrasts greatly with the hostile skies of the 1940’s on the other side of the globe. One suspects the original Royal Air force crew would be happy to see it in such an environment. “It’s a labor of love I do it out of respect for the guys who flew it in anger and the camaraderie,” Taylor says. 

Lee Honsa, an instructor at Downtown Aviation, has been flying since 1990. Boarding the Cessna 172, we take off from the airport headed south, over Mud Island, and then above the fields just across the river from downtown for a post card view of the city. Ten minutes later we cross into Mississippi over the waters of Horn Lake, looking down on a church and cemetery. The cityscapes, farms and forests of the Memphis area and Mississippi Delta have a different kind of beauty from 1000 feet up. The River is looks even deeper, wider and more majestic flying over it than from standing at Tom Lee Park.

Honsa hands me the controls to help land the plane. To land, we fly north over the river, bank to our right, and descend over Fullen Dock and Warehouse to the runway. The landing takes about two minutes, but it takes much longer to get back to earth.

 

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