Pilot buzzing Armistice Day parade sparks rodeo
By Randy Presley, Special to The Journal – About the only event that happened on this day that was worth remembering to anyone but me was April 8, 1946. At the age of 16 years, one month and two days, I soloed my first airplane.
Mr. E. P. Hendricks, who had been giving me lessons, told me to stop on my third landing and he got out and said “Now you go fly. Make 3 landings and don’t bang up my old Piper Cub.”
I did and when I made the last landing and parked, he cut off my shirt tail and hung it in his little shack of an office. About a year later before I graduated from high school in 1947, Mr. Hendricks also soloed me in the old Army Air Corp surplus BT-13 with a big round 450 hp engine he bought thinking he would have a GI pilot training school for vets which never happened. My most memorable experience in the old BT-13 was when Dan Latimer, a member of the American Legion., who had learned of my flying, asked me if I would make a pass over the Armistice Day Parade on November 11th and “make some noise.” About the only thing the BT-13 was known for was “making noise.” At the appropriate time the parade got going I flew south down North Jefferson Street at about 300 feet above the trees with the prop in flat pitch (where it made the most noise) and went back to the airport and landed.
Dan called me later and thanked me for the flight and said he didn’t think they would do that again. He said the noise drowned out two bands and the horseback riders, who were at the end of the parade, had a short rodeo. The noise scared the horses and a few of the riders were bucked off, and some of the horses ran away and it took several hours to catch the runaways. Plus it scared the daylights out of some of the older women and their old veteran husbands thought they were being attacked! Obviously, I was not invited to do this fly by again!
Ironically, I drive by the very spot where I soloed several times a week. When the highway department decided to connect SH 49 with US 67 a few years back, the road from 49 went along an old country road for about half way and the new road was built extending north, crossing the railroad with an overpass, made a slight “S” curve and then ran parallel to the old runway until it connected to Hwy 67 at Hatfield trailers and the old, old road to Argo.
The old 1,900 foot runway is now an open hay field that is not fenced on the west side and is a little lower than the new highway. Whoever owns the land now cuts hay off what was once a runway at the first airport in Mt. Pleasant.
It is hard to believe that this event 70 years ago would be a major event in my life. I finally quit flying for pay when I was age 70. I still make one or more trips to the local airport each week just to keep up with what is going on in aviation in Mt. Pleasant.
Obviously, our now most famous event was the landing of a big 4 engine Lockheed Constellation that was the original “Air Force One” during the Eisenhower administration. It had been restored from a salvage yard in Marana, AZ and purchased by a guy in Virginia who has an aviation museum.
Scott Glover, who is building quite an aviation museum on our airport, became good friends with the owner of the old Connie and arranged for them to stop in Mt. Pleasant and overnight on their trip to Virginia.
Chances of us ever having a big 4 engine airliner land here is very remote and it drew a huge crowd. Long story but lots of aviation for me, including my time in the USAF and the Korean War since April 8, 1946. RP aka “Pop”.
