Thank you to Steve McDonald who has contributed old images that are in other Galleries on this site, and for this narrative on aviation and old airports in the Dade/Broward area:

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I grew up in Coral Gables and flew into and knew a number of airports in Dade County. My dad was an early pilot with the "other" major airline in Miami, National. I flew for Eastern for several decades.

Our next door neighbor during World War II was Colonel Gilbert D. Hatfield, USMC, the CO of Master's Field on NW 27th Avenue, now Miami-Dade College.

1. Pan American Airport was Wilcox Field to me. The south side of Wilcox where the present 20th street airline terminal is, was a railroad loading area for the Seaboard Airline Railroad and to the west was the Army Air Corps Field, now runway 9-27 (9R-27L for decades until recently).

Somewhere I have an 8mm movie of the first ever Boeing 707 to land at Miami Airport. It was a Pan American 707 on lease to National. I was standing on the upstairs outside balcony of the 36th Street Terminal when I shot the film. Dad was the Captain.

2. I flew in and out of Brown's Airport, Chapman Field (CAP with Dad), Compton, Richmond (1967), Curtis Pitts North (1966), the present Curtis Pitts, and the original Ocean Reef.

3. Airports missing from Paul Freeman's Old and Abandoned Airports website are the Coral Gables Aerodrome, Fritz Compton Airstrip (Kendall), Seminole (Hialeah), original Ocean Reef, a part of the golf course, both Curtis Pitts Airports (Perrine, then Homestead), Neubauer (Homestead), and the Kendall Gliderport. There may be more; my memory is not the best anymore.

4. The last I knew, Kings Bay Yacht Club occupies the former Chapman Field.

5. John Paul Riddle was a neighbor and family friend in Coral Gables. He lived on Andalusia. Riddle Aviation left Chapman Field for the west side of Old Tamiami, not Opa Locka.

6. Tom McGahey (McGahey Chrysler-Plymouth) was an early Pan Am pilot and is still lucent in his memory of aviation in Dade County. He learned to fly at Viking as I recall, which was both a land based airport and a seaplane base.

7. As best I know, Bob Beilman in his 90's and living in Vero Beach would also be a source.

8. Bufkin Fairchild at 95 is very alert. He lives in Lantana now. He was a mid-1930's Eastern Pilot and early Dade County aviator.

9. I seem to recall that Sunny South Airport on NW 7th Avenue about 95th Street was run by Eastern Captain Charlie Darnes. As I recall, he left Seminole Airport to the new location taking Sunny South with him. I flew with Darnes at Eastern.

10. Broward County: I recall having flown in and out of Forman and North Perry, the two wagon wheels. I seem to recall a flight with Dad to Fred Kershaw's Field west of Davie, but don't have a clue where it was.


Steve McDonald
McAlpin, Florida
a little known aviator