Meadowlark Airport

Meadowlark Airport

Or was it East Long Beach? Or was it Sunset Beach?

This is an update to this site which was originally posted in 2003, almost four years ago. The original intent of the posting was to document as much as I could about our little airport that meant so much to so many of us. I thought that the site might be of interest mainly to those who had used to use the airport. And I thought that most would know who the author of the site was because I listed a lot of trivia about my banner towing business. I realize now by the number of hits the site has had, that most persons would not know who I am. Today, 6/21/2007, the number of hits is almost 11,000, far exceeding the number of persons I have ever known. So a little late but let me introduce myself. I am Bob Cannon and my business at Meadowlark was known as "Sky Ad". I now reside in Portland Oregon.

Today, it is hard to believe that we are approaching the 20 year mark of the closing of Meadowlark airport. But interesting is that so many of us still keep in contact with each other mostly via email. A significant number of ex-Larkers have now passed on, and yet the memories remain vivid.

My email address is skyads@comcast.net Please feel free to send me any pictures or stories that might be of interest to add to the site.

(Note: after clicking the thumbnail you can super-size the picture again)

This website is a collection of my pictures and thoughts about L16 since I was a youngster. It was destined to be my place for the most important part of my life; that I didn't know for many years later. I have many pictures of L16 going away back, and I have tried to place the best ones here. If you have any that you may want to include, please e-mail me and I will try to do what I can to include them.

I bought my first airplane on 6/24/1955. It was a really beat up 46' 7AC. It had more patches on it than it had unpatched areas. I bought it from Al Lary at Fullerton airport for the tidy sum of $800.. I had taken my flight instruction at El Monte airport and during that time had seen a lot of stunts pulled off by guys in all sorts of light aircraft. My instructor, Freddy Potter, had told me that aerobatics in the trainer types we were flying was a no-no, but I had seen snap rolls after take off and the likes without any parts falling off. So I asked Al Lary what his opinion was. He asked me what I wanted to do. I replied maybe rolls and loops. So he demonstrated snap rolls, aileron rolls, and loops in the 7AC. Of course, it helped that Al was an old time barnstormer type with a lot of experience. So on the way home back to El Monte I was practicing these snap rolls when I heard the sound of 12 gauge shotgun go off in the right wing (I was snapping to the left). That plus the overflow of gas coming into the cockpit made me think that maybe Freddy had a point. From then on I limited myself to the usual spins and lazy eights. I had three forced landings in the airplane and somehow talked Al Lary into taking it back for nearly what I had paid for it. It took a little gesturing on my part to make my point but the last flight was on 11/19/55. I had invested in a set of tires (my log book states installed "different" tires) and a windshield, but in the 5 months I had the airplane, I flew it 88 hours.

One of my most favorite jaunts from the beginning was to low fly the beaches, and on one of the first trips I found East Long Beach airport, and I fell instantly in love with it. Huntington Beach had always been one of my favorite places to visit. In fact I was with my father while he was fishing on the pier the night the end fell off in 1939. I can remember the swaying of the pier very well. It didn't seem very safe to me, and the only other person I saw was the guy who owned the End Cafe at that time. He came by hauling his cash register in small wagon.

Huntington Beach Pier.

http://www.hbsurfcity.com/history/hist.htm

As far as I can recall, the airport didn't look much different when it closed to what it was on that first visit. The air was clean and the hamburgers were tasty (must have been the salt air?). After leaving East Long Beach, I made a stop at Huntington Beach airport. Huntington Beach airport was located right where the power plant resides now, and for many years one of the old airport buildings was visible on the property. After landing there, I walked across PCH and spent a little time looking at the waves. I managed to get oil stains on my pants from walking through the ice plants that grew in the sand. Here are few pictures from that trip: Note: You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge them, and then click again for a super-enlargement. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the super-enlargement to take place; play with it.

You might note in the above pictures that Huntington Harbor is totally a vacant marsh and that there are two water towers. Also in the background of the next to last picture there are no visible houses east of the pier. Also a wooden oil well rig is visible.

In last picture you can see an Atlantic Richfield tower that was placed at so many of their stations. This one was at Dana Point. On that tower is an airway beacon light flashing code dah-dit-dah identifying that position on Victor 23 airway. The 7AC was a real dog of an airplane but it provided me with more excitement than I had ever experienced. I actually used to try and roll the wheels on the water when the ocean was calm and more than often the airplane would come back with salt spray on the windscreen.

Between East Long Beach and Fullerton were several airports: Cyprus, Haster Farm, Horse Farm, and east of L16 was the vacant military field, Mile Square which is now the site of several golf courses and many houses. This picture is from a March 15th, 1950 Los Angeles Sectional. L16 does not appear on this issue.

Note that in this 1954 San Diego Sectional that L16 is named East Long Beach, and is 2000 feet long. Also Huntington Beach Airport is shown. On a March 1955 both fields are shown. The Los Angeles March 19th 1956 Sectional ( not shown) has the field named Sunset Beach. In the second picture taken from a October 3rd, 1956 San Diego Sectional the field is shown named Sunset Beach, is now 1900 feet long, and the Huntington Beach airport is no longer listed.

On 5/18/56 I bought my 2nd airplane, a very nice Luscombe 8E OPT ( I never found out what he OPT meant) for $1,700. It was definitely an "uptown" airplane compared to the Dog previously owned and now I could expand my flying to high altitude airports such as Big Bear, but Sunset Beach as it was now known was still on my favorites list. I show in my log book that on 6/30/56 I landed at Haster Farm with the notation: "into weeds".

These pictures were taken in June 1956 at the then open but unused Mile Square airport. Note the lack of houses in the background. I kept the Luscombe until later in the year when I sold it and bought a Ryan ST3KR (PT22) for $1,150. I had sold the Luscombe for over $2,000, so I had pocketed some money on the deal and still had an airplane. I never flew the PT22 into L16 as I was having too much fun just putting it into every position possible and staying near to El Monte.

In 1963 I bought a Fairchild PT-26/23 hybrid and once again was back at Sunset Beach and the runway is hard surfaced and is now 1800 feet long (the Meadowlark name still hadn't been coined as shown by the March 22, 1963 Los Angeles Sectional map). However, the San Diego Sectional for August 22, 1963 has the field named Meadowlark and now the length is again 2000'.

So it is a conclusion that the name of the Airport changed from early 1963 to sometime in the summer of the same year. Also it seemed to be that sometimes the Airport would be shown on the L.A. Sectional and sometimes not. Same with the San Diego Sectional. Also in that time frame there were maps called "Locals". This is a 1956 San Diego Local map. There are lots of now non-existent airports including Carlsbad (now Palomar). During my flight I landed at a "strip" of some 600' feet in length and marked it on this map. I decided that someday I wanted to own that house and strip. Unfortunately Richard Nixon beat me to it! It became the Western White House!

On July 7th, Dan Brennan and I flew the PT into Sunset (my actual log book entry) where the field was hosting a gathering of antiques and experimental's. Here are some pictures from that event:

Note the ground loop of the Aeronca LC in the last frame. No damage to aircraft; ego hurt.

Interesting story about the yellow PT-23 above. The picture is taken at Brackett where I had my PT tied down at the time, but the owner had bought the airplane allegedly from Dave Horal at Sunset. It was almost flawless and the owner is holding a trophy he got at some showing that day. But there was one little ruffle in the fabric covered wooden wing, and he asked the mechanic at Brackett if he could fix it. The mechanics name was Joe and I knew him from El Monte previously. He was a totally thorough mechanic and before he would work on an airplane, he would inspect it thoroughly. He started doing a walk-around and at the tail he started working the elevator back and forth until he had totally loosened it. The aluminum brackets peeled open as if they were made of mica. Then he pulled the rudder loose the same way. Then he opened up the belly and punched the center section and found it rotten. The airplane was scrapped! And all because of a small flaw where some moisture had gotten under the fabric. Ironically the guy had been taking aerobatic lessons in it from my old instructor, Howard T. Riley. The last picture is my PT-26 modified with the Continental 220hp round engine, ala PT-23. I sold that airplane to an Air Force pilot who had a little trouble with it. The exhaust port was located right at wing level, and one day while upside down, a gas cap on the exhaust side of the wing came off and a "clinker" from the exhaust started a fire. He did a side slip all the way to the ground, made a safe landing and watched it burn to ashes.

The fellows name was Stan McGrew, and he had offered to trade me straight across for his Fairchild F24, but I opted to take the $1300 I wanted for my bird. That was a considerable profit since I had bought it for $695. Stan did a complete restoration on it and sent me this picture before the crash.

After selling the PT, then came a string of airplanes starting with the Stinson 108-3, Cessna's 150, 182, 210, Meyers 200D, and then my Stearman. With all of these airplanes, Meadowlark as it was now known as, was a frequent stopover for the usual hamburger. In fact, before I got the Stearman, I had a Mooney tied down at L16. One day, after a wash down at the "wash rack", I taxied off and one tire slipped off of the concrete and dropped a few inches into the mud. The prop got a small strike, so I removed the prop and took it to Torrance for a straightening. The next time I taxied out I hit a pot hole and struck the prop again, not severely, but enough to tell me that L16 was no place for this short geared airplane if I had to park out in the dirt.

I finally decided to get the airplane I had always wanted and I bought my first Stearman, N61986 for $10,000 John Davis, who was closing down California Ag Aero in Hanford. I had decided to get into the agriculture type flying, but found that anyone I talked to about a job always asked me "how much Stearman time do you have"? I knew that flying a Stearman wouldn't be any different than anything else I had flown because when I learned to fly, there were no tricycle geared trainers. Everyone learned in what was called "conventional geared airplanes", later to be dubbed "taildraggers". But when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and I bought the Stearman to get time in it and to be able to answer the big question with some huge number like "hundreds of hours"!

I had the Stearman, a stock 2-holer with the Continental R-670, tied down at Orange County airport (I never got used to the name Santa Ana or John Wayne) because I was living only 10 minutes away in Corona Del Mar, and the tie-down wasn't much higher than Meadowlark. But one of my first flights was into L16 for the usual fare of a hamburger. In the short time that I had the Stearman, nick-named "Bessie", I had already gotten a citation for "Making turns in excess of 90 degree bank" over Newport. I fought those charges contending that it was impossible to make a turn in excess of a 90 degree bank but still got a 30-day suspension. So here I was going into L16 when I see the HB Police Helicopter tailing me. Sure enough, as soon as I landed, the Chopper landed and two of HB's finest accosted me at one of the outside tables of the Cafe. I was not about to be put in the position of getting another citation, so I bought lunch for my new friends. Seems as though they didn't think that I should be at pattern attitude of 800' prior to entering the pattern. Rather than argue the point I used tact and made a couple of friends.

The next person to walk over and introduce himself was Rod Worthington. Actually he came over and asked me: "How would you like to make some big money with that airplane"? Music to my ears, but:: "What do you have in mind"? Rod explained that he ran a business called Sky Ad and that he needed another airplane and pilot to tow his banners. The wages were $30 an hour for me and the airplane. The typical flights on the weekend would be two three-hour flights per day. A quick assessment of that financial offer meant $360 per weekend if everything went as planned. Since gasoline was only $0.50 cents a gallon, I would be netting almost $300! I quickly became trained in the art of picking up and dropping the banner, and was off on my first job. I didn't quite work out the way Rod offered it mainly because he didn't rush to do anything. But that season went by, and toward the end of the year Rod offered to sell me the business. I hadn't forgotten my main objective of getting into the "Ag" business, but I was having a lot of fun for the present, and the price offered for the business was too low to pass up. For $18,000 I got all of the worn and tattered banner stock, the business phone numbers and yellow page Ad, and one beat up single-seat ex-crop-duster Stearman with a P&W985 powerplant. I figured the airplane was nearly worth the total price, so a deal was made.

The next year Rod asked me if I wanted to sell the business back to him. I didn't, and Rod conferred to me that he had sold the business before and let the new owner baby-sit it over the Winter, make a few improvements, and then when discouragement set in, Rod would get it back. Rod and I became fast friends and spent a lot of time at the nearby beer bars "shooting pool". Actually there were some factors involving the business. Rod's father, the infamous Cal Worthington, provided most of the business, and what he didn't provide, his Ad agency did. Maybe like throwing Rod a few "bones". Without this business there wasn't much business, at least during Rod's tenure. I was an experienced Sales Engineer placed in the right place at exactly the right time. Timing is everything. The weather was the best that has been seen ever since in SoCal; there was very little competition, and the economy was booming. I thought and thought about what product to pursue for advertising. I wanted a product that both male and female, young and old, would have an interest in, and it would have to appeal to the beach crowds. I hit the nail on the head and came up with "Blue Jeans" at exactly the timing of the big boom in Custom Jeans. I had a market made. I also tackled Stereos and Radio Stations; each a big hit. I had 8 airplanes scheduled for opening day, Memorial weekend 1977. Because I only had the two Stearman Biplanes, I had to find airplanes to leaseback and pilots to fly them. Timing again worked in my favor as I was able to fill in a fleet to meet the workload.

The airport was scheduled to close in two years, and Art Nerio who ran the airport, always told us that we would have two years to prepare to move. So 1978 came and went, as did 1985 and 1986. But the insinuation that things were going to happen seemed more and more prevalent. Life went on as usual with everyone hoping that it would always be two more years. In 1987 the shoe finally dropped and we were given the notice. September 1989 would be the closing date. I had now been in a thriving business for over ten years and was making more money than I ever had as an Engineer. Life was good. And my goal to get into the "Ag" business had faded out of sight.

There were many problems along the way with the City Fathers at HB and with the Gestapo (FAA). But all problems have been overcome. The inside details of the Sky Ad business over the time that I worked it will be told later.

It is impossible to put into words any explanation of what made Meadowlark what it was and what it meant to so many, from so many walks of life. It was as if the airport itself was a magnet for so many distinct and interesting personalities. There were the "regulars" at the Cafe everyday each with a story. Too many to even try to itemize or list. People from all sorts of flying backgrounds. Ex-fighter pilots from WWII, ex-bomber pilots, pilots who had flown China before WWII. One of the most famous Stunt pilots of the era, Joe Hughes, camped in the hangar next to mine. There were "old timers" and "newbie's". Eccentric people like Spud and Jim Minear. There were the usual mix of present airline pilots. For a little basically dirt airport on 80 acres, it attracted pilots from the entire SoCal area. At one time we had a gaggle of 13 Stearman Biplanes assembled at the Cafe ramp. The Cafe featured a half dozen picnic tables outside almost directly under the departure path. Where else could anyone sit so close to flying activity? And it housed the largest banner towing (Aerial Advertising) business in SoCal. In terms of actual flying activity, Meadowlark had to have made the top list in number of flights taken. Like any small city, there were the usual intrigues of individuals involved in activities beyond flying. I, myself, got married at the Windsock at Meadowlark. And when the airport prepared to shut down, there were several deaths just coincidental with the closing. After the airport closed, I was able to keep my business located there for several years. I even set up a deal where I could drop banners on the field. A few months after the closing, my dog Sandy, just withered up and died. Her life had been 110% activity starting with mooching her breakfast at the Cafe, and then chasing the dunebuggy carrying banners to the pickup area. Or making the rounds of the airport with the persons taking their daily exercise walking the airport perimeter. There was a continual barrage of activity for her, and when it suddenly stopped it was as if her world had come to a stop. And it had. And now more than 10 years later, the airport still lives on in cyberspace. It was an unorganized fraternity that knitted so many people from so many walks of life into one personality that was reflected in the name Meadowlark.

Between 1950 and 1955 over 50 airports in the general SoCal area fell under the developers plow to meet the growing population demand occurring after WWII. And now the last of the Mohicans finally passed through the same door. What was "our little airport" is now a shopping mall and 2,000 very high priced houses. If the airport had never closed, very few of us would ever have left. But with it gone, most of us have moved to the various states. In one of my first flying trips in Oregon I parked next to a fellow who told me he had an airplane at Meadowlark until the end. I had never ever seen him before. The following pictures tell the final story. In it's better days, beginning January 1978:

To my knowledge, there never was a fatality from a crash at L16. At least, not during the time that I was there. There were ones nearby from crashes of airplanes that didn't make it to the airport, and there were from crashes of airplanes that had departed from L16, but none directly on the airport. My first night in front of the City Council at 10PM I was given 3 minutes to explain why my business shouldn't be shut down. I was not given any particular reason as to why they wanted it shut down, but I was taking my best shot. I was just into the first minute starting to explain that the airport and my operation were very safe when just like in a "B" movie, the Fire Chief who had been sitting in the audience (for what reason who knows?) stands up with his little radio and expounds: "There has just been a crash at Meadowlark". Unbelievable as it may seem, this actually happened! The bottom line was a fellow and his wife flying into L16 at 10PM in a Cessna 150 with their 12 year old son in the baggage compartment overshot the runway and was departing when their engine quit. The pilot had been having the same problem earlier with this airplane, but in any event he made a 180 turn and crashed into the Quonset hut. They plugged directly into it and survived the crash, except for their son who was thrown out of the airplane and seriously injured. That allegedly cost the Nerio's $50,000 from their insurance company, and Cessna Aircraft $2M big ones. Another time I was having a quiet dinner at my hangar office when I noticed the reflection of a flashing red light such as a tail strobe, but no engine noise, and then a loud "Thump". After running around the airport, I finally saw the activity in the wooded area just east of the airport property. It seems a Cessna 210 on a cross-country to Orange County ran out of gas somewhere between Long Beach and HB. The controller vectored the pilot to L16 which was unlit at the time. A much safer choice would have been to choose the shoreline. In another case shown in the picture below, I watched a Cessna 172 attempt a takeoff, however it sounded very much as though the engine was nowhere near to developing takeoff horsepower. The pilot aborted the attempt and then taxied back and did it again, this time just barely getting off the ground in a stalled condition, all the time the engine running smooth but not developing any real RPM's. After gaining 50' or so in altitude, the airplane did the usual beginning of a stall/roll when it plunged into the bank building adjacent to the airport. Since myself and my ground crew had been watching this debacle take place, we were one of the first to respond. One of my ground crew kicked in the banks door and rushed up to where the airplane was plugged into the 2nd story. By now the pilot and his passengers, who apparently were on their first flight, were talking. According to my ground crew the pilot said something like: "I hope this doesn't spoil your desire to go flying"! In the newspaper article the next day the pilot was quoted as saying how he expertly guided the airplane into the safest crash site through the window after the engine sputtered. There were many other situations of airplanes running off the end of the runway, sometimes plugging the Quonset hut, or if missing that, the rear of the buildings on Warner. One of these was a Flight Instructor out of Camarillo airport. Just hard to adjust from flying into a 2,000 foot runway when the usual was 10,000 feet.

In 13 years of running the Sky Ad business, the above two pictures show the only damage done to my aircraft. The Stearman, Bessie, was sabotaged at a time when I was in a marital dispute with my ex-wife. The safety wires to the adjustable propeller pitch screws had been removed. Jim Stillinger was making one of the many scenic rides I gave after a day of banner towing when one blade of the propeller went into a flat pitch causing much shaking of the airplane. There was a very strong crosswind blowing when he landed and made the ground loop. No one was injured in any way. The last picture is my 7KCAB. It's a long story and will be told later, but I was checking out one of my pilots in a taildragger when it happened. After a nice breakfast at the Harbor House Cafe in Sunset Beach where we talked about this pilot's problems, I was assured by him that he wouldn't come up with something "new" out of the bag. He promised that would never happen again as it had many times in the past in his training. He made several excellent landings both on the wheels and full stall, then on the last one, while several feet in the air, he went full forward stick racking up a 9 on the "G" meter when a gear bolt broke. I asked him later what the hell was that all about, and he told me that last night he had read some instructions from some "Wolfgang Somebody" that said the best way to make a wheel landing was to "plant it"!

The banner tow activities at L16 definitely provided a measure of entertainment for the patrons of the Cafe. A few pictures of that activity are shown here.

There were many beautiful sunsets and calm days; even the Goodyear blimp would come by for a low pass. But when Art Nerio hosted a "Celebration" for the ground breaking for the new Shopping Mall, the End was Beginning.

And then the Bull Dozer went to work. All airplanes had to leave the field and I made sure that I was the last person to fly out of Meadowlark for good. Admittedly there were some unidentified persons making touch and goes on the old taxiway for a brief period, but officially, I flew the last airplane out of Meadowlark.

With the Tee hangars and the big hangar down, it was time for the Flight School and at last, the Restaurant.

The last house to go was the Nerio's home. This was where Art's Mother and Father could be seen working in the garden when they weren't in Los Angeles. I was always amazed at how fast the demolition could be done. If I wasn't right there exactly when the Dozer fired up, I missed seeing the whatever come down. Just a few blows and it was over.

The only remaining buildings on Meadowlark after the demolition were Joe Hughes big hangar and my Trailer and hangar. It was sad to see it all end, and yet I was still there at Meadowlark for another two years, not with any airplanes of course. But Art Nerio let me continue my business operation as usual, but it was eerie to say the least. I bought 100 dozen old golf balls and made the old pickup area my driving range. I still had my motorhome and other vehicles there, so from that standpoint there wasn't much change. But to say the least it was eerie. I could see the ghosts of all of the past roll in front of my eyes. I was here, I was at Meadowlark, but all else was gone. Gone also were many of the problems of the past. The two year life of Meadowlark, or East Long Beach, or Sunset, had now been extended to 10+ years from when I bought the Sky Ad business from Rod Worthington. But now it was reality; it was over and gone.

Final Pictures of a vacant airport.

Then the real development began. First was the shopping mall in front.

Then it took a few more years for something to really happen. In the meantime, L16 was just a ghost airport only inhabited by my banner tow business. It was absolutely eerie sit outside my trailer in the afternoon and not see anything move where once there had been so much activity. And then that came to a close. I gave Art my nice 35' trailer/office and said "Adios". Every year I would take a trip to SoCal and take some pictures of the development. These follow. The first one is before the big hanger was removed. In the picture you can see the fence I built to separate myself from my obnoxious next door neighbor whose name is very close resemblance to the one of the famous star of the TV series "All in the Family". Every year I would make a pilgrimage and take some pictures of the developments. The ironic thing is that exactly where my business was located, there now resides a small little park. I doubt that very many people utilize it, but it there now and forever to commemorate where my life's goal was achieved. Just a small little park.