Antique Aircraft Flying Adventures
WACO Biplanes and Pioneer Grass Airstrip: Live History for Travelers
Sep 21, 2008
It’s so rare to get a chance to experience flying as it was before we were born, those pioneer days of the past. But on Martha's Vineyard there’s a place to get back to the early days and feel what it was like for Lindbergh, Earhardt and Post. Katama Airfield is where aviation began on the island in 1927 and has remained active through World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam and the Iraq conflicts.
Antiques that Fly
Red and White biplanes sit on the grass airfield and the two green strips that run out into the distance through fields of yellow goldenrod. Climb up a platform ladder, grab hold of a couple bars in the wing and swing feet-first into the open cabin. A safety belt goes on, then a soft leather flying helmet with goggles, just like Snoopy’s. A mike allows passengers to communicate with the pilot, who is often airfield director Mike Creato himself.
Taxiing down the grass strip makes the first-time passenger wonder what they are doing in this antique with two wings, an open cockpit and support struts and wires all around -- but then it’s too late to turn back. The plane turns and is off into the sky in a few hundred feet, stable, and soaring high over the island. In minutes the whole island lies below. The plane tilts and the view changes. There is Edgartown, then Poge Bay and its lighthouse. There’s time to wonder at how green the island still is, marvel at the beauty of the shore and bays.
Historic Airfield
Many airfields of its vintage have reverted to pasture, shopping centers or tract housing – big flat slabs of land are so tempting for developers – but not here, thanks to a dedicated family. In the 1930s Steve Gentle, a Maine native, learned to fly at this field which was then a hotbed of flying enthusiasts. The ground-breaking Curtis-Wright Flying School even set up here. Steve’s life became centered around flying, and he spent World War II spreading that skill to American military pilots who fought around the world.
In 1944 Steve seized the chance when the field became available and he bought it, vowing to preserve it -- and he kept that promise. Steve’s son helped for a while, but his grandson Mike stayed with his grandfather, working with him, learning to fly and to appreciate the rarity of what they shared. Twenty years ago Steve sold the airfield to the town of Edgartown with covenants that would preserve the land as it had been.
Living History
Today the field is much as it was in the beginning. Mike Creato, Steve’s grandson, and two partners operate Classic Aviators, giving flying lessons and providing flights over the island in a pair of completely restored WACO biplanes, one built in 1941 and the other in 1942.
In the biplane, before you know it, time has evaporated. Passengers quickly feel like one with the airplane and thrill at seeing the Vineyard from the air, much of it looking as it did a century ago. After they are comfortable with the sensation of open flight, Mike asks passengers if they’d like to experience a roll or a stunt …it’s entirely optional. The plane heads back to the strip, settles softly to the ground and taxis along the grass as it did for its first pilots 60 years ago – and as earlier aircraft did for the flight pioneers only a few years before this plane was new.
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