Anyone here from the old gang at the Fremont (CA) airport?

IK04

IK04

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I just finished reading and viewing the photos of what's left of the Fremont airport:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanJose.htm#fremont

It has always made me feel sad to know the airport was closed for "development" of a new industrial park or whatever and it still sits there now, abandoned and empty, 30 years later.

The crazy things we did there, back when flying was fun because there were few rules...
 
IK04 said:
I just finished reading and viewing the photos of what's left of the Fremont airport:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanJose.htm#fremont

It has always made me feel sad to know the airport was closed for "development" of a new industrial park or whatever and it still sits there now, abandoned and empty, 30 years later.

The crazy things we did there, back when flying was fun because there were few rules...
Click to expand...

A lot of history there.
 
I guess I just missed it. I started training at NUQ in summer of 86.
 
From what I have heard, a few of the real crazy ones still sneak in there at night, just for the thrill of it. I learned the "red light on a pole" approach and it completely reset my level of fear and judgement as a pilot. I'm sure it saved my life a few times in combat many years later....
 
In 1991 when I was learning to fly at Palo Alto Airport, which is across the bay from Fremont, my instructor lamented the demise of Fremont Airport.
 
IK04 said:
Nope. It's California. They'll find some kind of endangered flea or noise abatement code to prevent the land from being used for anything useful...
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It sounds like that's exactly what happened, and why the land hasn't been developed. But if you can show that an airport wouldn't harm the flea...
 
I was never based there, but used to fly into Fremont in the mid-sixties. Here's part of the 1966 San Francisco sectional. We've lost a lot of airports in the past fifty years.

1966%20San%20Francisco%20Sectional%20Landscape_zpskjfcausk.jpg
 
Yep. When I first got checked out in a 172, I would take my friends around the entire Bay Area at night. It was an awesome flight on a clear night and it was always enjoyed by everyone aboard. We left RHV, flew over San Jose, Moffett Field, Palo Alto, San Carlos, SFO, Crissy Field (Presidio), The Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, NAS Alameda, Oakland, Hayward, Sky Sailing, Fremont (with a red light approach) and back to RHV.

Sometimes we would jump in the car and drive up to San Francisco to go to the bar at the top of the Hyatt Regency Hotel (The Equinox, no longer there) and look out over the whole Bay Area and remember where we had just been in the airplane. It was a cheap date, but something few people get to do!
 
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I worked and discovered the woman who would become the love of my life at Fremont airport. I would love to connect with the many individuals that worked there with me again. Please, if you know of anyone who frequented this wonderful airport in 1977 to 1982, let them know I am looking to reconnect.

Thanks, MikeE Bowen, gas dock attendant.
 
My brother instructed out of there in the late 60's for a couple years. He had just returned from Nam and before going to the Marshal islands for a job. I don;t know much about his tume there. I know he instgructed there and a couple other places around there, and got a divorce while there. So probably not a good memory. Always too bad when they close airports.
 
IK04 said:
Yep. When I first got checked out in a 172, I would take my friends around the entire Bat Area at night. It was an awesome flight on a clear night and it was always enjoyed by everyone aboard. We left RHV, flew over San Jose, Moffett Field, Palo Alto, San Carlos, SFO, Crissy Field (Presidio), The Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, NAS Alameda, Oakland, Hayward, Sky Sailing, Fremont (with a red light approach) and back to RHV.

Sometimes we would jump in the car and drive up to San Francisco to go to the bar at the top of the Hyatt Regency Hotel (The Equinox, no longer there) and look out over the whole Bay Area and remember where we had just been in the airplane. It was a cheap date, but something few people get to do!
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The bay tour at night is great. Flying over the golden gate provides a great view of the SF bay and City, plus its normally rather quiet.
 
Sometime in 1984, a pilot friend took 3 of us in a 172 to lunch at the Livermore airport. We drove a few miles from our Milpitas office to fly out of the Fremont airport. I was a PP at the time but not active. Great times. I miss seeing aircraft on short final coming over the 880 freeway.
 
noahfong said:
Sometime in 1984, a pilot friend took 3 of us in a 172 to lunch at the Livermore airport. We drove a few miles from our Milpitas office to fly out of the Fremont airport. I was a PP at the time but not active. Great times. I miss seeing aircraft on short final coming over the 880 freeway.
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I really enjoyed flying out of Fremont airport at night. Not many did! Lining up final with the two red light atop the street lights on Dixon landing road and the gas dock light. Then point the nose down with a slight right turn and seeing All the reflectors light up along the runway. Not many would feel comfortable landing at night at Fremont airport.
 
Stan Cooper said:
I was never based there, but used to fly into Fremont in the mid-sixties. Here's part of the 1966 San Francisco sectional. We've lost a lot of airports in the past fifty years.

1966%20San%20Francisco%20Sectional%20Landscape_zpskjfcausk.jpg
Click to expand...

My house is at the bottom of that map but I have only been here a couple years... Wish I had gotten to experience some of these memories you all are sharing!
 
Hopefully this is on topic enough (sarcasm from another thread). Looking through that freeman webpage I saw the name Jonathan Westerling. I believe I worked with him at Google Fiber and one day we were working on something together and started talking about airports. He had some really interesting stories about old airports, much more interesting than whatever it was we were supposed to be working on. I remember mentioning how I was so surprised that some small airports existed (e.g. Georgetown, blue canyon). He began to tell me about so many more. While I think old and small airports are cool, I can understand why Fremont doesn’t exist anymore with Hayward and Reid-Hillview so close. Depending on what you call the Bay Area, there are a lot of GA airports (for now…).
 
Oldmanb777 said:
My brother instructed out of there in the late 60's for a couple years. He had just returned from Nam and before going to the Marshal islands for a job. I don;t know much about his tume there. I know he instgructed there and a couple other places around there, and got a divorce while there. So probably not a good memory. Always too bad when they close airports.
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I worked as a contractor on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands in the late sixties and early seventies supporting the Safeguard ABM system. We even had a small flying club with a C150 and a Beech Musketeer. Here I am parking the 150 after taking a coworker for a flight around the atoll. It was probably 1971 or 1972.

1972%20stan%20and%20nike%20flying%20club%20c-150%205x7_zps1abu3umm.jpg
 
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I would guess you probably ran into my brother. Well, its aviation, so small world anyway. I have run into people all over the world, that I knew from somewhere else.
 
There was also a great drag strip near the Fremont Airport. Hatted to see both of them go.
 
Cruzinchris said:
There was also a great drag strip near the Fremont Airport. Hatted to see both of them go.
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I believe it was the Fremont Drag strip and it was co-located with the Sky Sailing Airport. Drove by to see them once. Remembered busy glider ops there.
 
Cruzinchris said:
There was also a great drag strip near the Fremont Airport. Hatted to see both of them go.
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The drag race crash scene in the movie "American Graffiti" was filmed there before it closed forever.

My first flight ever was in a Schweizer 2-33 out Fremont Sky Sailing Airport. There are bits of it still visible on Google maps/Earth.
 
There is also a tiny section of the concrete runway visible that is the remains of a US Navy airfield that was abandoned after WW2.
 
Red light on a pole approaches!

College Park, MD. KCGS today, had a pole with a red light on it at the NW end, to keep us out of the railroad signal and telegraph wires. Line that up with the 3rd runway light on the RIGHT side (Beyond the taxiway) and keep about 5 MPH above your normal daytime speed, and hold those two lights side by side until a hundred feet before the railroad tracks, then pull up enough to reduce speed by 5 MPH and hold that until across the tracks. Drop the nose to normal speed, and land.

With 60 foot trees within a hundred feet of the numbers at the other end of the runway, night landings were normally over the tracks at night, even with a modest tail wind.

A Mooney took out the top of the pole on a botched day landing, and it was now 3 feet too short to hold the light at proper height. The fixture itself was broken, but the lense survived. I had a two light fixture, missing a lense, so salvaged the old lense and added a 6 foot piece of pipe, attached it to the decapitated pole the proper distance from the ground, and we were back in semi legal operation. No one called the FAA out to certify the new lights.

The barely solvent management gave me an hour in a J3 Cub for my donation. Cheap way to keep my tailwheel skills sharp. My two light fixture was salvage from a radio tower, cost me nothing.
 
I took flying lessons at Fremont Airport, Fremont California, Dixon Landing Road in 1980 and flew 704DB and 704UH (152s). Too bad it is now a furniture store in that location and I really do miss that airport with the skull and cross-bones, instead of numbers on the runway.
 
I think my primary flight instructor from 1991 had previously flown at Fremont Airport. Linton S. "Kyp" Kypta.
 
IK04 said:
Nope. It's California. They'll find some kind of endangered flea or noise abatement code to prevent the land from being used for anything useful...
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That’s NOT what happened. I worked there at the end. The lease was up and the landowners didn’t renew it.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Sad.

Maybe someone should buy it up and make it back into an airport...
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IK04 said:
Nope. It's California. They'll find some kind of endangered flea or noise abatement code to prevent the land from being used for anything useful...
Click to expand...

Mike stupey said:
That’s NOT what happened. I worked there at the end. The lease was up and the landowners didn’t renew it.
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I know that. The remark was in response to the first quote above, from Flyingcheesehead. ^^^

The last time I was involuntarily in the Bay Area, I drove by there and the broken surface of the parking ramp was still visible.
 
IK04 said:
I know that. The remark was in response to the first quote above, from Flyingcheesehead. ^^^

The last time I was involuntarily in the Bay Area, I drove by there and the broken surface of the parking ramp was still visible.
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There was a issue with the Salt Marsh Harvest mouse and some kind of Butterfly, but it never was a real hindrance. What killed Fremont Airport and SkySailing airport was good old economics and an unimaginative City Council. A lot of the people from FAP ended up at Sonoma SkyPark.
 
I grew up airport bumming at Tracy Muni n the 80’s. Made friends with a few guys that moved to Tracy when Fremont closed. Jim Morin, Steve Arath, Martin “OD” O’Donald. They had other Fremont friends that would pass thru often. Cool bunch of Dudes.
 
OD was one of the smoothest pilots I have ever met. He was a natural...

Tracy is where I got to fly the Bensen Gyro trainer that towed behind a truck. Those were good days!
 
I miss Fremont Airport. Learned how to fly there. 83'/84'.
Flying Tim, I flew N704DB.
Jim Gillespie
199235_1006391196186_7864_n_1006391196186.jpg
 
IK04 said:
OD was one of the smoothest pilots I have ever met. He was a natural...

Tracy is where I got to fly the Bensen Gyro trainer that towed behind a truck. Those were good days!
Click to expand...

Was that with Myriam Springer?
 
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