Recently, a page I follow on Facebook, Old photos & stories around Bedford County, (Pennsylvania) had a post from one David Amman about an airport project that he was researching. The airport in question was the Bedford Airport, the town where I was born, as well as my dad and many generations before him. David was looking for photos of the four airport locations in Bedford. He had also attached two photos that he had found. One was a newspaper ad about the Bedford Airways Flying School and the other was B & W photo of four small aircraft parked on a a grassy piece of land. This post most definitely piqued my interest because my dad learned to fly at the Bedford airport. I had always wanted some old photos of the airport but had never gotten around to a serious search. One of the replies to his post made me remember that I had some of my dad's aviation related things. I dug them out and there were several airport locator maps from the late 1960's to 1970, a manual flight computer and most importantly, his pilot log books. I posted a photo of a random page from his first log book. This caught David's interest and he asked if I would search for a specific tail number in the log book, NC96309. This is getting more interesting by the minute. Of course I would look for it! Page after page and nothing, until... Aug 12, 1947. There it was. A T-craft Ace which he flew for 50 minutes. He practiced stalls and landings on this flight out of Bedford Airport. Finding the number, I immediately let David know. David then told me that he is the current owner of that specific aircraft and that it is one of the planes in the photo he posted! Sure enough there was the same number on the plane in the photo! Now my mind is blown! What are the chances of this ever happening! I kept looking thru the logbook and a few days later, dad flew 96309 again for 35 minutes. There was also another entry in the logbook for a T-craft Ace with a different number, NC96563 that he also flew as a quick 15 minute orientation flight previous to flying in 96309. I believe that that plane is also in David's photo. And here's why. The Flying School had 4 trainer aircraft and there are 4 planes in the photo. It's blurry but I feel that the number matches. Just like that I have a photo of an actual plane that dad flew in 1947.
In examining dad's log book, I realized the he did not begin his flying lessons in Bedford, instead the first 10 months or so, he flew out of the Martinsburg, Pa airport about half an hour north of Bedford in Blair county. The reason for this was that Bedford did not have an active airport at that time, but one was being built and would open in 1947. Dad's very first flight was on June 24, 1946. He was just a week or so short of his 17th birthday. He flew in an Aeronca Champion NC83657 for 30 minutes.
Dad's first cross country flight would happen on June 4, 1947 about the time of his graduation from Bedford High School. He took off from Bedford in an Aeronca Champ NC2388E (this number becomes important) flew 46 minutes to Utahville in Clearfield Co, Pa then on to Tyrone, Pa 20 minutes away and then 41 minutes back to Bedford. He continued his lessons through the summer of 1947 and on July 22, he began prepping for his flight tests. On Aug 12, 1947, dad received his license, coincidentally, the same day he flew David's plane for the first time. Dad flew several days a week thru the rest of August and was able to now have passengers along. He gave rides to family and friends. You might wonder how a high school kid paid for his lessons and flight time. Dad did have various jobs in town, but would also tell us that he would do odd jobs around the airport to help pay for the lessons. I remember him saying that he did some digging around the runway once and painting an identifier on a roof at the airport.
Dad went away to school at Parks Air College in St Louis for a year but managed to get in flight time at Bedford on visits and the summer of 1948. He then transferred to Lock Haven Teachers College, Pa in the fall of 1948. He flew many hours the summer of 1949 at Bedford and that fall began getting in some flight time at Lock Haven's airport, also home to Piper Aircraft. One log entry on Sept 24,1949, he said that he and a friend flew from Lock Haven to State College, Pa and flew over the Penn State vs Villanova game at half time in the new Beaver Field that had opened that year. Penn State 6 - Villanova 24. At Lock Haven, dad was flying a Piper Vagabond. Dad flew as often as he could through college until 1952 when he entered the Army for a two year enlistment. His longest cross country trip was July 26 - 30, 1950, when he and a brother flew from Bedford to St Louis. One of those flights during college included my mom, whom he had met in Lock Haven. She was visiting Bedford with him and on July 26, 1952 she took a 30 minute ride over the Bedford area. She wasn't a fan of flying but did it that day. When dad returned from the Army, one of the first things he did was to take a check flight at Bedford on July 9, 1954. His log book says he did not do the medical because he was getting married the following month.
Dad did not pilot a plane again for 13 years. But in those years, we were able to fly with dad's brothers once in awhile at Bedford. One of those rides was in summer 1965. I did find a photo taken from a cockpit where dad's brother Gene was the pilot and the photo was marked as Weidman's Bedford. Weidman's was a name of the 3rd Bedford airport location.
Weidman's Bedford - 1965
Dad had three brothers, all of which held their licenses for awhile. One brother in particular, Gene, flew all his life. Along with his wife, they did air shows and competed in aerobatics. In late 1967, dad decided to renew his physical and get his license current again. By this time, he and our family were living in Pottsville, Pa and dad was a professor for Penn State's local campus in Schuylkill county. His first flight was on Nov 9, 1967 at the local airport, Zerbey, near Pottsville Pa. He flew in a Piper PA-28 140 Cherokee.
By March of 1968, he was checked out and began flying around the area. On April 2, 1968, I had my first airplane ride with Dad. I had five rides in all with dad by Aug of 1970. There could have been more that he didn't note me in his logbook. I enjoyed the rides but not enough to want to learn to fly, I guess. Dad always wanted me to solo at 16. I was 15 at the time and had other interests, plus I could not even learn to drive a manual shift car! How in the world would I have been able to handle all that stuff in an airplane! Rudder, Throttle, Instruments and of course, the "Houses get bigger, Houses get smaller" yoke! Mom was probably relieved, she would worry every time my sisters and I flew with Dad. I was on Dad's last flight which was on Aug 23, 1970. He had to stop flying due to a medical issue. A sad ending to something he loved to do.
My first ride with Dad
Side Stories
Now, in getting back to my conversations with David. He sent me many news clippings he had collected for his project. I searched old photos to see what I may have had to share as well. It's hard to believe that there was not one photo of dad with any airplanes during the time he was learning to fly! In dad's log book, I noticed a signature of the same person on almost every page. Woodrow Clapper. Of course, me and my curiosity, searched him at newspapers.com and started finding some of the same clippings that David had sent me. It turns out that, Woody as he was known by, was one of three former WW2 army pilots who formed a company, Bedford Airways, and were building a new runway for Bedford just 2 miles north at Cessna, PA and opened a flying school marketed to veterans and their GI Bill benefits. This airport would be the 2nd of 4 locations of an airport at Bedford. It was open from 1947 until sometime between 1958 and 1962, when a 3rd location replaced it. However, there is information that says the 2nd location continued operating as a private airport until around 1965-68. The school appealed to more than veterans tho, as many others, men mostly but there was at least one woman who completed her training there, enrolled. So that all made sense. This was all around the time that dad was taking his lessons.
David also shared a link to a page where you can search for aircraft tail numbers. He searched one of the other numbers that he had seen in the log book and came up with a match. Remember NC2388E that I said was important? Well, it is another plane that is likely still flying today. So now we have a photo of a second plane that dad flew back in 1947. It's last owner is listed as living in Woodbury, PA which is very near Bedford. Both of these planes were manufactured in 1946. David bought the T-Craft Ace N96309 in 2019.
David's Taylorcraft Ace NC96309 today - note the Bedford Airways Logo on the fuselage
Three of Bedford's Aviation Pioneers
Woody Clapper was a local pilot before WW2 and flew gliders in the war and later after the flying school in Bedford, was an officer in Bedford County's Civil Air Patrol, and also was Bedford's postmaster for 40 years. My curiosity was not yet satisfied tho and being related to ALOT of Bedford county families, I turned to Ancestry.com and searched for Woody's family. I did find it and was able to connect to Woody in several ways. 1st, we are related to his first wife, Dorothy Calhoun, through our common Border family ancestors, as 7th cousins. 2nd, my daughter in law who has many Bedford connections, is an 8th cousin of Woody through the Brumbaugh and Hoover families. And 3rd, we are related to Woody himself through the Brill, Maurer and Amick families as our 5th cousin. One of the trees on Ancestry that Woody Clapper is part of had some additional news clippings attached to him that pertained to the airport and school. I finally had something new to share with David. I think dad would have liked knowing of his relationship to Woody. Woody passed away on April 19, 1991 in Bedford at age 78.
One of the other partners who built the 2nd Bedford Airport was named Jack Henry Pepple. He too was a glider pilot in WW2. His name appears in my Dad's log book on just one page, in August of 1947. Tragically, Pepple, age 26, was killed in an air crash less than a year later on July 16, 1948 over West Virginia in bad weather. At that time, Bedford Airways offered a charter service and it was one of these flights that crashed, piloted by Pepple. Prior to this crash, Bedford Airways had a very good safety record.
The third partner in Bedford Airways, Frank Grazier another WW2 pilot, bought Woody Clapper's share of the business in 1951 and in 1956 combined the Blair county airport with Bedford Airways and operated as Blair-Bedford Airways.
Special thanks to David Amman for his post! Thanks for reading!
SOURCES:
David Amman
https://flybedfordpa.com
https://flyaltoona.com
https://www.taylorcraft.com/history.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylorcraft_Aircraft
https://www.piper.com/blog/piper-history/
https://www.airfields-freeman.com/PA/Airfields_PA_SC.htm#bedford1
aerialvisuals.ca
Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com
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