were in excellent condition and were heated in the winter. The large doors could be

opened and closed by one person. Maintenance facilities were located in the rooms

on the east side of the hanger, and at first, the offices and classrooms were located

on the north side of the hanger, but later were changed to the rooms on the west

side of the hanger and a restaurant was put in the rooms on the north side.

The restaurant was operated by a certain J.D. Timbers, and was one of the better

short order restaurants in the Seymour area. During the G.I. Bill days, it was a very

popular hangout for the pilots and their friends. The restaurant had a long lunch

counter, several booths, and the ever-present pinball machines to put the nickels in.

If I remember correctly, there was a jukebox on the east wall. Much “hanger flying”

was done in here on rainy days and/or snowy days. With over 70 students on the GI

Bill, there were lots and lots of experiences to hash over. You would learn a lot in

these sessions – some good, some bad.

Ed Beck and his wife Dottie managed Trans-Air Inc. Ed had been a Naval Aviator

(Lt. Commander) in WWII, operating from carriers in the South Pacific combat zone.

Ed was also the chief flight instructor for Trans-Air. I might mention at this time that

Trans-Air, Inc. was a locally formed corporation, with some of the stockholders being

Ed Beck, Fulton Meyers, Dewey Abel, Jim Holmes and others in Seymour.

The other instructors at this time were Dewey Abel (a local boy) who flew

transport aircraft in WWII (and later, Korea), Robert Mosley, who had been a Noncom

pilot in WWII and flew transports over the Hump into China, and Jim Holmes, a

former instructor-pilot in the Army Air Forces, and a P-40 pilot.

With both former Army and Navy instructors for training, The GI Bill students at

Freeman received the best instruction available and learned both the Army and Navy

techniques. You could tell by watching a student practicing landings who his

instructor was, since some would be making short field “carrier” landings in the grass

strips by the runways.

Speaking of the grass strips, all students were restricted to the grass for landings

while practicing. They were allowed to take off on the concrete, but all landings

were to be on the grass. All the aircraft in use were taildraggers and the grass is

much more forgiving in landing errors and – to the FBO’s benefit – saved wear and

tear on the tires. Some of the students got a shock when they were allowed to use

the concrete. They thought they knew how to land until they hit the concrete.

Landing grass and concrete is different as day and night in a taildragger.

As I listed earlier, there were 11 aircraft in use by the students at Trans-Air. Some

of the aircraft were owned by the people learning to fly and were leased to Trans-Air,

but the majority were owned by Trans-Air. There was also an Erocoupe that could

be rented once you had received your private ticket, but it was not on the GI Bill.

Evenings and weekends were very busy at Freeman Field. Most of the aircraft

were in the air, either in the practice area around Cortland, or all around the field

practicing takeoffs and landings. It was nothing to have 6 or 7 planes in the pattern

at once, and all students. And to think this was all taking place with no radios, no

control tower, no Unicom, no near misses and no accidents. In those days, everyone

was taught to fly with their eyes and not their ears. Seems as though we did all

right without the “modern” safe traffic controls. With the exception of some prop

tips damaged, and some wind damage to planes on the ramp, only one aircraft was

damaged due to pilot error. He ran out of gas on a cross country and landed in a

small field and took out a chicken coop stopping.

As I mentioned earlier, all students who had received their private ticket and were

on the commercial course received night training on the “ flare pot” runway.

According to my logbook, I flew over two hours of night time on and off this runway,

which is a heck of a lot of takeoff and landings, since we weren’t allowed out of the

traffic pattern.

Since all of our cross-country work was without the benefit of radio, we mostly flew

by dead reckoning, following a line drawn on a sectional. And of course we had

“IF R” flights (I Follow Railroads). Dead reckoning and pilotage were really enjoyable,

since we got to use the countryside to find our way around. We always had our

heads “outside” the cockpit, unlike today’s pilots who must always watch their

instruments to find their way around. We were also not distracted by the constant

radio “chatter” in our ears, as is the case today. Of course, aviation has “grown up”

since the 1940s and 50s, and in most cases for the better.

Some time during this period we had another FBO operate on the field. Two

brothers, Ray and Tony Taguiam opened up a little maintenance facility on the west

side of the ramp, and operated for a short period. They were located in the little

white building north of the Freeman Field Maintenance facility building. Ray was a

government aircraft inspector at the then active Bakalar Air Base, and was also a

civil aircraft inspector. They did aircraft inspections and also had an Aeronca Champ

for rent. They did not stay too long and moved out sometime during the Korean

conflict.

The GI Bill training finally drew to a close in the early 1950s, and the flying activity

really died down. Trans-Air, Inc. was down to one person, Jim Holmes, who was the

FBO manager, the instructor, mechanic and inspector. There were a couple of planes

for rent, but most of the local flying was done by members of the Seymour Flying

Club with their aircraft, a Cessna 140, Aeronca Champ and a J-3 Cub.

I also might mention that during this time frame, Trans-Air was also the dealership

for Crosley automobiles. They also had auto maintenance facilities set up in the

hanger. If I recall right, they sold several autos during this time.

Of course, there are many, many more stories to be told about this time frame at

Freeman, and maybe someday I can relate some of them.

By Al Seibert

(Written in 1990)