Early RHV Photos
These pictures were shared with me by Gerald French and show a Reid-Hillview Airport of the past. He provided the following description of flying at the time.
Memories of Flying 20 1957-1960
Flying 20- It’s great to see that you are still flying
I just wanted to give you a little history before I do my last heavenly flight (I’m 78)
In 1957, during the 100th year Centennial) I enrolled at SJSC (7500 students) and joined the Flying Twenty.
The instructor was a Japanese real estate salesman Frank Lowe. One of my first lessons was in an “Interstate Cadet,” an underpowered two-place tandem seat plane, made in 1941. First time to take off, he said “Give it full throttle and pull up.” I did, scarred the hell out of him since I pulled up too fast and just about stalled out. He was screaming in Japanese. We also had a Cessna 170 and a Luscomb (which used a stick for control). All three planes were squeezed into a single hangar space. To get the planes in and out of hangers was like a jig saw puzzle.
No control tower- it was to be seen and unseen. It was not unusual to see planes landing in both directions.
We had a fellow student who would leave the campus and not to been seen for several months. It turned out he was flying for the CIA
into Cuba around the time of the “Bay of Pigs.” Another brought a “Knight Twister, a stubby short wing bi-plane. He was told by the “old timers” to fly it fast on take off and down shallow turns. He took off from Reids and made the normal sharp turn to the right and the torque of the engine inverted the plane and he couldn’t recorder. Dwight- sorry I couldn’t spell his last name, was an excellent
pilot and had a PT21, went into the Navy and survived Viet Nam, came back to his beloved PT21, took her up and did some aerobatics
and the wing came off. On the brighter side, many had careers in the aviation industry including flying for major airlines.
Going to classes during the day and the only time to fly was at night. Love it! One time I took off and flew around, came back. So on final you lined the green light up at the beginning of the runway with the red light at the far end. These were the only lights. So you turned your landing light on. At that time there was a golf course at the south end of the airport with tall trees. Coming in if you do not see the tops of trees you were too high, if you see them you are just right, but if you truly really, really see them, pull up you are two low. Yes, there has been times that low flying planes on final during the day were hit by golf balls
As a side note, as a photographer, I did some aerials which paid for the instructor, plane and college. I can recall that the instructor was $7.50 an hour and the plane also was $7.70 an hour including gas.
In 1960 I earned a degree in journalism, worked for the Seattle Worlds Fair, opened up aphotographic studio in San Francisco in 1962. My clients were some of Fortune’s 500 corporations. Been published in numerous magazines including, Time, Newsweek, Nat’l Geographic and others
It’s been a lot of fun. So here’s some history
Gerald French
Read MoreMemories of Flying 20 1957-1960
Flying 20- It’s great to see that you are still flying
I just wanted to give you a little history before I do my last heavenly flight (I’m 78)
In 1957, during the 100th year Centennial) I enrolled at SJSC (7500 students) and joined the Flying Twenty.
The instructor was a Japanese real estate salesman Frank Lowe. One of my first lessons was in an “Interstate Cadet,” an underpowered two-place tandem seat plane, made in 1941. First time to take off, he said “Give it full throttle and pull up.” I did, scarred the hell out of him since I pulled up too fast and just about stalled out. He was screaming in Japanese. We also had a Cessna 170 and a Luscomb (which used a stick for control). All three planes were squeezed into a single hangar space. To get the planes in and out of hangers was like a jig saw puzzle.
No control tower- it was to be seen and unseen. It was not unusual to see planes landing in both directions.
We had a fellow student who would leave the campus and not to been seen for several months. It turned out he was flying for the CIA
into Cuba around the time of the “Bay of Pigs.” Another brought a “Knight Twister, a stubby short wing bi-plane. He was told by the “old timers” to fly it fast on take off and down shallow turns. He took off from Reids and made the normal sharp turn to the right and the torque of the engine inverted the plane and he couldn’t recorder. Dwight- sorry I couldn’t spell his last name, was an excellent
pilot and had a PT21, went into the Navy and survived Viet Nam, came back to his beloved PT21, took her up and did some aerobatics
and the wing came off. On the brighter side, many had careers in the aviation industry including flying for major airlines.
Going to classes during the day and the only time to fly was at night. Love it! One time I took off and flew around, came back. So on final you lined the green light up at the beginning of the runway with the red light at the far end. These were the only lights. So you turned your landing light on. At that time there was a golf course at the south end of the airport with tall trees. Coming in if you do not see the tops of trees you were too high, if you see them you are just right, but if you truly really, really see them, pull up you are two low. Yes, there has been times that low flying planes on final during the day were hit by golf balls
As a side note, as a photographer, I did some aerials which paid for the instructor, plane and college. I can recall that the instructor was $7.50 an hour and the plane also was $7.70 an hour including gas.
In 1960 I earned a degree in journalism, worked for the Seattle Worlds Fair, opened up aphotographic studio in San Francisco in 1962. My clients were some of Fortune’s 500 corporations. Been published in numerous magazines including, Time, Newsweek, Nat’l Geographic and others
It’s been a lot of fun. So here’s some history
Gerald French
