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(KOLM). All seven were built with three 5,000-plus foot runways, arranged in a triangular fashion, with the most active facing into the prevailing wind and constructed in a relatively short time at the beginning of the war. The question sometimes is asked, how did the builders know what the prevailing winds were way back then? Being the practical American workers they were, the bull dozer drivers just looked at the direction of fallen trees in the woods – no extensive studies needed.
After the war, these airports were no longer considered important to national security, so the Federal government simply gave them to the local community to be used for (what was hoped to be) a vibrant future local air transport system. But, it did not quite turn out that way. For years local governments actually did not know what to do with their huge concrete covered airports and let them lan- guish, with grass and trees growing up between cracks in the pavement, plus coyotes and deer running amok. Even today, many of them are still vastly underutilized...except by savvy general aviation pilots.
And that history lesson brings me to a flying story.
My wife and I recently decided we wanted to buy a cer- tain type of foreign car, and we began searching online for vehicles available in the area. As it turns out, there are dealers for these cars scattered all over Puget Sound, but depending on where they are in relation to the water, get- ting to any one of them could easily take an entire day by car despite the fact they are only 40 miles or so away from each other as the crow flies. So, wanting to look at some of the vehicles available, I decided to call the dealers and ask if they could just meet me with the car I was interested in at their local (ex WWII) airport. “Not a problem,” they all said. In fact, I think the sales guys liked the idea of temporarily getting away from the office.
The first dealer was located in Bremerton, which is on the other side of Puget Sound from where I live. Getting there would have involved at least a two-hour drive in traffic, plus a ferry trip, then another drive. Just going there and back would take all day. But, flying from my local airport (KBVS) in our Cessna 340 to Bremerton (KPWT) only took 18 minutes. We landed there with the sales guy and the car waiting in the FBO parking lot. The vehicle had a few more scratches than were apparent in the dealer’s photos, so we looked up another dealer, this time located in Shelton – about a one to two-hour somewhat circuitous drive around the various inlets of south Puget Sound from Bremerton. In asking that dealer the same question, “Could you meet me at the Shelton airport in about 20 minutes?” the immediate answer was, “Sure we can.” So, 15 minutes later, we are on the ramp in Shelton when the car salesman shows up with the advertised vehicle. This one, however, had a lot more miles than we wanted, so we decided to keep looking. But, this airport had a nice hamburger and milkshake serving restaurant that seems to cater mostly to skydivers, so all was not lost. We had lunch and pondered our next move.
The next dealer with the type of car we wanted to see was located in Olympia, another one to two-hour drive
Factory Direct
Preferred
September 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19