Pilots

"It's a nice little field."

Dick Johnston probably has heard that said a few thousand times over the 41 years he has managed Grand Canyon State Airport in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. And it is just that — a nice little field.

Grand Canyon State is set high atop a hill just west of Wellsboro, population 4,000, which lies along Route 6 in north-central Pennsylvania. The runway is paved — 2,100 feet of it, anyway, but there's plenty of grassy overrun. It's lighted at night, and there's an instrument approach off the Stony Fork VOR, 2.3 miles to the southwest.

Twenty aircraft are based at the airport, about half of them housed in a row of faded green metal T-hangars. The airport office; gas pumps; a few aged, door-less wooden T-hangars; and some outdoor hangar-flying chairs occupy a knoll just to the south of the approach end of Runway 28. A couple hundred feet from the airport office is the house that Johnston and his wife, Ada, who works alongside her husband, built 33 years ago.

Johnston makes a living in part by giving sightseeing rides — $15 a trip for one, two, or three people — in his Cessna 172 or 182 over the nearby Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, a wild and beautiful gorge carved by Pine Creek. He doesn't advertise the service — doesn't have to. He's been doing it for so long that all the motel and campground owners in that part of the state know where to send the tourists.

The nicest hangar on the field is up on the knoll behind the office. It's where Johnston and his son do aircraft maintenance. Each is a certified mechanic and inspector. Together, they maintain some 50 airplanes from Pennsylvania and New York. They also fly a few charters, including transporting corpses for several undertakers, and do flight instruction.

Johnston goes to work each day wearing a pair of crisp blue overalls and a blue hat to shade his nearly bald head. He is 71. His waist is trim, and his arms are powerful, and his skin is smooth and remarkably free of wrinkles. He is testimony to clean country living, even in the frequently harsh climate of northern Pennsylvania.

Johnston grew up in the Pittsburgh area. His family moved to Wellsboro when he was in the Air Force. After being discharged, Johnston got a job as a mechanic at the local Ford dealership. He stayed 21 years and became service manager.

In 1949, he decided to scratch an itch that had been with him for as long as he could remember: the desire to become a pilot. He began training at the Wellsboro airport, which then was little more than a farmer's hay field. When his instructor left for another job, Johnston continued his training at Cherry Springs, another hilltop grass strip southwest of Wellsboro.

With a fresh pilot certificate and instructor's rating in hand, Johnston began spending time at the Wellsboro airport. He soon found himself spending evenings at the airport, managing a club that local pilots had organized to operate the airport, and working on airplanes. That grew into more serious endeavors — instructing and flying charters.

Realizing she was fast becoming an airport widow, Ada agreed in 1951 to move out of their home in town and into the airport office. The Johnstons leased the airport from its owner, and operated it. Ada had two children while the family lived in the small quarters.

In 1954, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought the airport. To hear Johnston tell it, the owner of the airport was threatening to close the field. The state stepped in and bought it after hearing from the owner of the local telephone company, who operated a Beech 18 and also happened to be an influential state senator.

The state soon brought in heavy equipment and partially filled in a dip in the middle of the runways. In 1962 the dip was completely graded away and the runway paved. The state erected the T-hangars in 1976. Other than clearing trees and removing power lines at the approach end of 28, the airport hasn't changed much since.

Big things are in the wind, though. An airport master plan calls for extending the paved runway to 3,600 feet and adding a parallel taxiway. The expansion is being driven by local business interests, who hope to attract more industry and jobs to Wellsboro. In the past few years, two major companies decided against locating in Wellsboro, in part because the airport was not deemed suitable for their corporate aircraft.

In the meantime, Johnston goes about his business the same as he's done for four decades. Life goes on at Grand Canyon State, a nice little field.