CARTHAGE, N.C. — Ground has been broken on new hangars at Moore County Airport (KSOP).
The expansion project includes the construction of two separate buildings containing five 60-foot x 60-foot hangars, 12 T-hangars, storage units, and restroom facilities. The new hangars are scheduled to be completed in early 2023.
“It’s so exciting to finally be breaking ground on this airport expansion project because these hangars have been in the planning stages for years,” said Mike Jones, chairman of the Moore County Airport Authority. “Hangars are important because a prosperous community needs to have a prosperous airport — it’s a must have. A successful airport creates jobs and economic opportunities for everybody in Moore County.”
While the preliminary funding for the project was provided by a state grant, all the cost of construction will be funded directly by the Moore County Airport, according to officials. Once completed, the total cost for the project will be close to $7 million.
“The demand for new hangars is incredible,” added Moore County Airport Manager Scotty Malta. “We currently have over 40 customers waiting for hangars for their aircraft, and these new hangars only will accommodate maybe 25 of them. We continue to work hard to find solutions to make sure our pilots have the proper storage for their planes.”
The airport was established in 1929 when the Tufts family, founders of the Pinehurst Resort, opened a dirt runway and named it “Knollwood Airport.” The airport was acquired by Moore County in 1935 and was later leased to the U.S. Army Air Corps until 1945, when it transitioned from a military airfield to a general aviation airfield.
Kinda sounds like Thun Field, which used to be 1S0, when John Thun owned the 520-acres and developed it early on. JT was a machinist in the Tacoma shipyards during WWII and worked alongside my father who was a shipbuilder and welder. Back then prices were such that everyone with any means at all could fly and stake out a land claim. JT’s means and his business savvy made Thun Field into one of the most dynamic local airports around, together with a lot of help from JT’s family and local General Aviation pilots. Who can ever forget those delicious hamburgers, french fries and milkshakes in the small cafe that used to be right next door to the Thun home!
Heck, I remember in the mid sixties when I got interested in flying, my folks would drop me off at the Puyallup Safeway store on Meridian by the Fair grounds. JT would pick me up in his turquoise Ford Thunderbird, along with a load of fresh donuts and pastries and we’d head out to the airport for a day of excitement. Thunderbird was the name you’d see upon entering Thun Field in those days.
From the Safeway, up South Hill, and out to the airport, there was nothing but beautiful Evergreen trees lining the highway on both sides, except for a house or two here and there and the Willows stop in the road with a local lumber mill at 112th. Wow, look at it today, houses and businesses for as far as the eye can see, and continuously encroaching on and boxing in that airport of 520-acres plus.
I got to fly with JT in his 1956 straight tail Cessna 172 numerous times, including searching for a missing Cessna 182 Skylane that was flying VFR from California that never made it and crashed near Alder Lake in IMC. JT also had a brand new Piper Colt 2-seater I got to ride in, also known as the ‘Milk Stool’. From those experiences and handling the flight controls from the right seat, plus mountain flying with Boone Wilmott in his yellow and black Cessna 170 as we made round-robin trips carrying sand, gravel and cement to the 10,000 level of the NE side of Mt. Rainier in order to build Camp Sherman one Summer (see: https://www.summitpost.org/steamboat-prow/155596), dropping those 50-lb innertube bags out the door and then one-day gliding back almost to Orting with the prop stopped, I was eager to learn to fly. I soloed and got my Private Pilot Certificate at Thun Field in 1968, and later on bought my first airplane, a 1973 Cessna Skyhawk II, from Ken & Betty Stark who then ran the FBO, and I made my first really long cross-country from Wichita back to Thun Field. Those were the real hey days of General Aviation and those early pioneers like JT made it all possible.
Look where we are today! Thun Field has been taken over by Pierce County Government and OUTSIDERS have been brought in to ‘manage’ the airport and from what I hear from the locals, it’s NOT a very happy situation. It seems the ‘friendly’ days of General Aviation have just about been extinguished with too many planners and bean counters, or as we’d say in older times, “TOO MANY CHIEFS AND NOT ENOUGH INDIANS!”
Even the airport that I helped put on the map has been extinguished. Oh sure, the runway is still there, but it now has “X’s” on both ends. Somehow, the City of Elma relinquished it’s quit-claim deeded ownership interest in the runway proper and aprons, after receiving extensive Federal & State funding for planning, paving and lighting in the early 1970’s. The two-story combination apartment and flight operations building is totally dilapidated, the two underground 7,000 gallon Texaco fuel tanks and fuel island are gone, all the airplanes that were housed in four-rows of T-hangars are gone, and apparently Chinese money turned the airport into a POT growing commercial business.
Elma Municipal Airport is no longer shown on the Seattle sectional aeronautical chart. Nice, huh? I ran a small FBO there from 1973 thru 1980 and it was a going concern, sold lots of 80/87 and 100LL AvGas for .69-Cents a gallon and we sold lots of brand new Cessna 172 Skyhawk’s, 177 & 177RG Cardinal’s, 182 Skylane’s, 180 & 185 Skywagon’s, and even a couple of 206 Stationwagon’s. Elma was a fun place to fly to for short field practice.
When the Elma Airport closed, General Aviation lost a valuable airport and aircraft owners lost a place to keep their planes at an affordable price.
The City of Elma has NEVER repaid any of the Federal or State funds back, and THAT is very troubling, especially considering WSDOT funding for OTHER airports.
J.R. Prukop/ATP
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