I have always loved tiny airports. I remember in Camrose, Alberta cutting class, influencing a friend or two to do so as well, and biking down to the airport. We’d roll between the hangars and speed down the empty runway, wishing the two wheels under us had wings attached like the little Cessnas parked nearby. We’d cast they bicycles aside and lay down at the very end of the runway and wait. Soon enough, a plane would speed toward us and we’d be left looking at the belly of the aircraft as the air lifted it higher and higher.
I remember the tiny airport in central Afghanistan where my family went for a motorcycle joyride. It was cold and windy and the dirt was ridged and frozen, but there was no chance of getting in the way of the aircraft that day. Planes would only come once or twice a week, if that, and it wasn’t plane day. Biting frosty air limited our time out there despite the layers and the scarf wound tightly around my head.
I can’t ride down the runway in El Monte, California—there’s no way between the hangars and I’d certainly be arrested if I tried. But a bike path winds it way along the concrete river by the fence, and I love to go out there and watch the planes take off. They meander to the end of the runway leisurely, like an old person taking a walk, and then turn, and in a few moments the cloak of sluggishness is thrown off and the planes accelerate down the runway and up into the atmosphere.
Something in me soars with them.
I have to say I love your style. And the influence you had over your friends. 🤣 I was usually the instigator when it came to skipping class as well. Love tiny airports. The one that fascinated me the most is Tempelhof in Berlin. Second best horror experience of my life, because walking up to it you can still see all the old Nazi structures. The other one I liked was Norwich airport. Ok, they’re nowhere near as tiny as yours.
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Nice timing, just yesterday we were wandering down the little airstrip on Terre-de-Haute, Les Saintes. Some 20 meters away, waves were crashing on the beach with not even so much as a fence to separate it!
https://imgur.com/HxC8dwc
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Great photo!
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Ah, the tiny airports. We have some in rural Iowa. One of the most unique we’ve heard of is on the Island of Barra in the UK. No runway. Beach gets exposed at low tide for air traffic. http://bit.ly/2CkHJsC
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I agree. I have seen that featured on a TV programme, I believe it was Coast. Flying there would be an experience.
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Songshan, Taipei – ok the planes aren’t tiny but the airport is cute. Honourable mention: Wellington, NZ.
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love this last line…beautiful! 🙂
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