Wildcat was a great mountain back then, and the gondola was great when the wind or cold was severe. When there was enough snow, you could ski down all the way under to gondola - Definitely gnarly trail at the top!
I don’t think that is Wildcat. Trails and view of bottom isn’t definitely not Wildcat. Looks familiar, but I’m not certain of the mountain. Also, I saw the Whittier sign, but are any of those images of Moose Mountain which was another nearby mountain in the 70’s.
I remember as a little boy there was a McDonald’s right next to it and used to love getting McDonald’s maybe back in 1999 or 2000 -2002 and watching the planes I was in AWE and always used to dream being a pilot one day - being a child with Huge Dreams and it was a great feeling and inspiration !!! Unfortunately not a pilot but learned a valuable lesson to believe in yourself and always believe in yourself and follow your heart ! I am Happy to this day but it was a great experience being a young 6 or 7 year old using this as an inspiration
Nice. I took lessons there in I think 1984-85, then stopped due to getting busy building a house, raising kids, etc. My instructor was Francis "Frank" Joyner, who was awesome. Once he was confident that I was technically competent and followed instructions well, he turned me loose to do things which were pretty brave on his part, like encouraging me to land at Tew-Mac with a 40mph crosswind component in a plane certified to around 15mph. The runway was unforgivingly narrow, but I got it down and kept it on the 25ft wide pavement all half dozen or so times, without him having to take over. One of my first X-C solos was on an Easter morning, I think just to Sanford and back. When I returned, Mr Hupper greeted me with "Well, at least one of you made it back." The other student got lost on his way to New Haven, then figured he'd follow the Connecticut River to find New Haven, and nobody would be the wiser. But the problem was, he was flying down the Hudson. He landed (allegedly unannounced, though maybe that was an exaggeration) at JFK. So, Mr Hupper was on the phone arranging a one-way ticket on Delta to JFK, to bring back the student and airplane. He was not happy about missing Easter dinner, or the student getting lost, or expecting that the FAA would be unpleasant before letting him leave JFK. Once the flight was arranged and he was resigned to his day being ruined, he lightened up a bit and seemed grudgingly happy the student got safely onto a runway despite probably feeling under incredible stress from being lost and then compounding it by accidentally heading to NYC as the place he had to land due to probably not having a ton of fuel left by then. The planes only held 22 gallons..
Thx for sharing that - It was a daunting place to learn how to fly - Runway wasn't much bigger than a driveway, not like Beverly or Lawrence - The Grumman AA1A Yankee was the trainer's they used - I called them, "skittish" to fly - Know with 2000+ hours, it would probably be fine, it was a tough place to learn to fly - And........ the loss of those small airports is a loss for all
I suspect what you're marking as Wildcat? is actually Snowshed at Killingon. Before the two parallel Yan doubles, there were two parallel Poma doubles with that Herron-ish look to them.
grew up in Tewksbury. Had my first plane ride there. Take off was a bit scary. I thought we were going to collide with the top of the "Giant slide" across the street at Joe's playland.
Great Video I want to get a seaplane rating sometime. I loved it, especially when I seen the Icom A22 portable radio a trusty friend in my flight bag. ICOM gave me a bad time for having the 25 year old radio. They said I needed to upgrade. I said not until dies. Its a great backup radio
Exactly - Nothing wrong with the A22 - I have 3, just replaced all the batteries and antennas - The powers-that-be will always want you "upgrading", absolute nonsense - If it ain't broke, don't fix it - My trike is 1999, I keep rebuilding it - My GPS is just as old as well, everything works great - And I am not a cheapskate, I'll spend whatever it takes to fly, but I do not buy into newer is better, unless it is, not in this case
I took my first flying lesson here : ( But hey…I now occasionally fly fish right up the street. Life giveth and life taketh away, I suppose. EDIT: It was actually in a little Grumman AA1 trainer much like this one. I don’t know enough about Grummans to say if this is the same model but if it is, there’s a SUPER outside chance it might be the same one. I don’t know if they based the same fleets there for 20+ years, though 🤷♂️
I grew up in Tewksbury in the 70's and 80's and saw many small airplanes cross over Rt. 38 coming in for a landing. I never knew at the time that I would eventually take flying lessons in NC and MD later in life. I was quite disappointed when I found out that the airport had been closed, as I always thought it would be cool to fly into that airport someday. Alas, it will never happen. Thanks for preserving - and sharing this!
Super sweet :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Great music too. Wes Frey did a crazy beautiful vid a long time ago flying low and slow and sometimes ungodly fast. Farm fields, rivers, etc and the music was a song I couldn't get out of my head for years... now I can't remember it (
Very very very awesome! I've been watchign a few Larry Mednick vids and guess that's why this puppy showed up :) I got some 10 hours in a few different trieks a couple decades ago and can appreciate the 'high' they produce... add the Lakes Region in New Hampshire and that's about as close to heaven one, or three, can get. THANKS!
I have many vivid memories of Tew-Mac. I grew up next to the nearby park on Tanglewood Av. Any off chance you know of somewhere I could look at pictures of/from it? I remember they had airshows or maybe just big fly ins(its been a while)? I would extra be interested in seeing pictures from one of those events. I had such a great time watching planes there as a kid. My Great Grandfather almost got hit by a small plane there while walking home from Market Basket one day; it just missed a car and hit the fence before the runway and missed him by about 20 feet. Finding a news article about that would also be really cool; I believe it was shortly before it closed. I missed seeing it by about 10 minutes because he left the store before us. I ended up moving to Maine in 1998 just in time to keep the passion going with living near Sanford regional airport. Never did get into flying myself. I have mild schizophrenia so I figured it would be best not to try even but simulators and RC planes have been a lifelong hobby.
TO time/distance varies - Yes there is density altitude, but I can't be bothered with that - Glassy vs a light chop makes a huge difference as does headwind and weight on-board - Boat wakes are dangerous - All I care about is flying, the details are irrelevant to me
@@PIGZFLY My family built the house on lot five right next door. As a child I watched in amazement as your house was built. Moss was a good man as I recall
@@davidAblake1 To the right as you look at the water I presume, to my left was Hutchins, Ralph and Jan are stii around but have been trying to sell for 2 years
@@PIGZFLY That is correct! Thank you for the trip down memory lane, it was a wonderful place to grow up. I haven't been back in 45 years. And I love your float trike, I need a new toy, do you need a license to fly?
@@davidAblake1 Not these, but there is a series of aircraft that fall under 103 that you can, I don't recommend it - Do you remember Don Hutchins, he was Ralph and Jan's son and helped build Moss's house
Just drove to Whittier a couple days ago and was not able to enter because of no trespassing signs but I was still able to see an original trail map on a building and the gondola
I miss that old Gondola. Never got to ride it myself but I remember visiting the mountain as a kid when it was still standing but not running. I thought the big multicolored towers were impressive.
