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(Editor’s note: Aline Midgett McCarter is the
author’s grandmother, while Marcus Midgett was her great, great
grandfather.)
Thirty-four years after the Wright Brothers took to
the air, many Outer Bankers experienced their first flight when Marcus
Midgett’s Roanoke Island farm was turned from a field into an airstrip.
The transformation came after the National Park Service hired commercial pilot
Dave Driskill to ferry supplies to work camps established during the Depression
along the Outer Banks. These camps helped generate employment and implement
erosion projects for areas that are now designated as National Seashore. At the
time, flight was an innovative and highly efficient method for delivering mail
and groceries to these remote sites, as there were no paved roads south of Nags
Head. The main base for Driskill’s operations was Skyco, an area of
Roanoke Island situated between Manteo and Wanchese.
 Aline
Midgett McCarter, age 16 at the time, recalls her excitement at seeing the
Fairchild Airplane sit where there once had been a cornfield and watermelon
patch. Flight was a long-held fascination for her while growing up, and she
recognized the anniversary of the Wright’s famous first flight by visiting
the historical site with her family every December 17th. The moment she saw the
plane she "hoped to get a chance for a ride in the air," she says.
RIGHT: The Midgett sisters in 1938: Nina Barrington (age 24),
Aline Ernell (age 18) and Catherine Louise ("Sam," age 12).
"Mr. Driskill had taken my father many times as far as
Hatteras and asked if my sisters and I would like to go," says Aline,
recounting the day her opportunity arrived. "Taking off was a feeling I had
never experienced before. From the air the little creeks and marshes were so
beautiful and, at that time, the beaches were nothing but white blowing sand."
Driskill, a seasoned pilot, was equally excited about
providing the islanders with their first flying exposure. "The presence of the
plane and pilot tapped into a fever for air explorations," says Aline. When
some local businessmen collectively acquired a Taylor Cub and later a
five-seater Stinson, Driskill began flight instruction. On Sundays he offered
sightseeing tours for a dollar and on weekends the airfield was a hub of
activity. Aline and her sisters flew for free "since he parked his automobile
in our yard and used water from our house…we went whenever there was a
spare seat."
 An excursion that
made the local paper occurred when Aline’s grandmother, Lena Midgett, and
her sister Mary, both over age 70, took a Sunday flight tour to "see what all
the fuss was about." The photo caption accompanying the article simply states:
"They went up." This was not to be the last time for either, the article
reported, as their intentions were to "fly regularly from then on."
The plane provided diversions from typical farm
activities for the Midgett sisters even while they were on the ground. "Once
the sheep got loose from the pasture and a plane circled the runway until we
chased them away," Aline says. There were a few accidents but fortunately none
tragic. "A student attempting a landing at too fast a speed stopped so suddenly
to avoid running into the fence that bordered Uncle Charles’s farm that
the plane stood up on its nose," she adds.
There were also brushes with Hollywood as movie stars
Brian Aherne and his wife, Joan Fontaine, flew into Skyco on their plane to
watch the Lost Colony performance. Aline and her sisters were impressed with
the fur coat that Fontaine wore in the dead heat of August. Before the couple
flew away, the girls gave them a box of grapes picked from their farm’s
vineyard.
The onset of World War II would bring an end to the
Skyco airfield. In 1942 the Civil Air Patrol arrived with their fleet of small
planes to patrol for German submarines. In 1943, the Navy needed a base for
aircraft squadrons and the airstrip was moved to the north end of Roanoke
Island where the present airport exists today.
"We lived across the road from the airport. We flew with Mr.
Driskill (on sightseeing flights) any time there was an empty seat in the
plane."
In 1972 the airfield became the site of a home my
parents built, where my two brothers and I grew up. As a child, the land’s
heritage entranced me when I found a metal box nestled into the ground beneath
layers of pine straw. My grandmother told me it was a remnant of the
yard’s past use as an airstrip.
Driskill continued flying and went on to a
distinguished career that included testing helicopters, becoming the first
person to receive a civilian license to operate this craft in 1945. In 1949 he
was killed in an accident at the age of 52 when his parachute became entangled
in a helicopter’s mechanism. His contributions, however, had a lasting
impact on the residents of Dare County. Aline’s sister Sam Davis said that
although she went on to fly to various destinations, "nothing compared to those
first short flights over Roanoke Island and the undeveloped beaches."
As for the Fairchild, it was transferred to the Bureau
of Indian Affairs in Arizona and, declared "surplus" by the government,
eventually sold for $300 to an Arizona resident in 1946. After 75 years of use,
the plane has now been completely restored by owner Greg Herrick of Greg
Herrick’s Yellowstone Aviation and Golden Wings Flying Museum of Jackson,
Wyoming, who has plans to fly the plane back to Dare County for the Centennial
of Flight Celebration. |
