Does Anyone Remember the Maple, Ontario Airport ?

[schmoo]

I have vague memories of driving out to Maple and going up in some type of cessna with my dad. He stopped flying when I was about 8. Maple was pretty rural back then and the airport stood out like a sore thumb. Different story now of course.

Did anyone else fly out of there ? Got pictures ?

[Flyboy757]

Flew in there on a xcntry out of Picton. Had lunch with one of the instructors there who had got is ratings at Prince Edward Flying Club (PEFC)...Gary Reid.

[DanJ]

That's the one that was right across the road (to the east) from Canada's Wonderland right? I remember watching planes coming and going from the mountain during the 80's. No pics, sorry.

[bobm]

Getting old I guess. Yes; and King City too!

[Kurwa]

My Dad took us there as kids to watch planes, probably a big reason why I do what I do now. No pics, but would be great to see some.

[ruddersup?]

Oh my, we are going back in time. Got my licence in early 60's on a Champ, $13.00/hr. None of the champs had electric start. Bloody Champs had been spun a 1000 times that's because all we did when we went solo was spin it, lol.
Lots of great memories, the old farm house with the "bar". Almost bought the airport but it was on leased land then and no guarantees about the future.
Think I've got tears in my eyes.

[crazy_aviator]

Went for my very first app AME interview with a fella at Maple,,,,after a few minutes, he dropped a spark plug on the floor, then asked me what i should do with it ,,,i said "throw it in the garbage" I never did end up with that company, i think the wage was either 11 or 13 an hour,,,

[Bushav8er]

Isn't Maple the one started by Marion Orr with a letter from Louis St. Laurent?

[Colonel Sanders]

Maple's gone?

[justwork]

Maple's gone?

wiki says it closed in '87... just houses now.

[Richard Harder]

I sure do remember Maple, I took my first discovery flight there on my 12th birthday in the early 80's, a gift from my Dad. It cost $15.00. Up up and away we flew in a glorious red and white C152, and I actually got to fly it myself. I was thrilled!

The biggest downer was on engine shutdown when the CFI said "come back when you're 16 and we'll teach you how to fly!". To a 12 year old, 16 was a loooong ways away, I wanted to fly right then and there! But I was sure hooked!

[RatherBeFlying]

I did my first flights out of King City until a successful Darwin candidate borrowed my instructor's plane on a foggy, stormy night to show his party buddy what flying was like. I was booked for a lesson the next day until the instructor phoned at work to say the plane was missing and whether I knew the whereabouts of a coworker who was also flying with him. Answered that coworker was around. That evening I was having a coffee with my sister and was looking through the Globe and Mail and saw a picture of a wrecked plane on a flatbed trailer with the registration of the instructor's plane. The instructor was phoning around to see who was alive to pick up the phone as the remains were not readily identifiable.

After getting my license elsewhere, I did my night rating out of King City in a Tiger. Maple had lights; so we flew out of there.

I became acquainted with a guy with a withered arm who wanted to learn to fly; so took him up on an intro flight and let him fly from the right seat. Then sent him off to Maple after talking to the TC medical folks who said that a practical flight test would be required. The instructor was told by the new stude that he was prepping for his practical flight test; so, let him do the taxi and takeoff until he caught on to the stude's experience level.

[EA757]

I got my private license at the Maple Airport (Maple Air Services) in 1970. I loved that airport, and it really hurt to see it shut down. Best little restaurant (maybe you remember Peggy - her business), and of course the 400 Flying Club, and a group of guys loosely referred to as the Goose Squadron. Remember Sam, AME would visit the airport clubhouse and restaurant once a month and do a slew of medicals on site. I remember my first flight was in CF-VBA, soloed in CF-WQH (had the nick name Whiskey sour for some reason or other). Maybe you remember CFI's- Vic or Dave, or some of the instructors like Lou (ex- WWII RCAF - best instructor in the world) Mike, Ken, or Randy. Couple of these dudes went onto Air Canada.

The Maple airport was founded by Marion Orr who was a ferry pilot during WW II.

Maybe you remember Kevin and Terry from King City, or the
late Herb. Herb ran an aircraft salvage business at King til it was sold and then he built an airport in Beaverton if I am not mistaken. Herb was big in COPA and EAA.

I was so blessed to be young at that time and to have made the acquaintances of so many wonderful (and older) people with skills, education and above all patience...

[av8tor_assrope]

Great thread. Always wondered about Maple Airport. As a kid, we moved up to Maple the year after the airport closed. If you drive around the subdivision where the airport once stood, all the street names have some sort of aviation relation (ie. Avro Drive, Hawker Rd ect)

[Cat Driver]

I had Marion Orr as one of my instructors in the early fifties, however it was flying out of Barker field not Maple.

I did some flying instructing at Maple airport in the late fifties and early sixties in the Champs they had there.

[Lost Lake]

I was 16 and took an intro flight there in a 172. Kept pushing the nose over to see out because I was so short. The "Goose squadron" was still around in the 90's. Hientz, George, Ron and Jim were some of the ones I remember. They moved to Pottageville which was a great little strip until they closed it. Brings back fond memories.

[Bushav8er]

I had Marion Orr as one of my instructors in the early fifties, however it was flying out of Barker field not Maple.

She was one of our instructors in the '80s...I remember her mantra - "watch the airspeed." Somewhere I have an autographed pic of her with a Spitfire.

[Liquid Charlie]

I would always drop into Maple on my wanderings through several Flying Farmer strips in the area - had my first helicopter ride with Roger Tessier there - he was also my instructor and CFI at the "old" BFC located at Queen St and Mclaughlin Rd in Brampton -

I know there was also a guy named Underbauchy (SP) who tried to set up a business there selling small airplanes and also there was the Helicopter school there as well --

That was back in the day when the Oshawa fly in was a big event - we would land in a farm field beside the airport and try to be the first plane to land when the opened the airport to fly in aircraft -- fun times and good memories for sure -- I wonder if any of those farm strips are still around --

[Tramp]

My dad flew there in the 70s and very early 80s before it closed.
One of the plane he owned was built and first flown there.
Some had asked about pictures. I can across one (from Canada's Wonderland) as I was working on a project tracking down my dad's old Smith Miniplane.

I'm still new to this so I've posted the link here:

http://findingffam.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ ... -born.html

Hope that helps.

[bizjets101]

Source

Bio -- Pioneer Profile Marion Orr

The story of the Maple Airport begins in 1950. This is when Dr. Phillip Macfarlane, a local dentist, bought 100 acres of land comprising part of Lots 19-20, Concession 4, along the Maple Sideroad (now Major Mackenzie Drive). Local residents found it humorous to know that Dr. Macfarlane paid double what many thought the property was really worth.

Dr. Macfarlane's original intention was to farm the land. He tried wheat farming, but soon sound that it was not a profitable venture. It was around 1953 that Dr. Macfarlane came up with a new idea for the property. With the impending closure of Barker Field, a small private airfield in Downsview, Dr. Macfarlane realized that his property might make a suitable location for aviation activities. His father Robert Macfarlane, known during his teaching days at Central Technical School in Toronto as "Hacksaw Bob", had worked as an aircraft mechanic during WWII, so Phillip was very familiar with the joys of aviation.

In 1954, Dr. Macfarlane invited Marion Orr, owner of Aero Activities Limited, to move her flying school from Barker Field in North York to his proposed airport.

Marion Orr was a veteran of the Second World War, having spent the war years working with the St. Catharines Flying Club, No. 12 Elementary Flying Training School in Goderich and as a pilot in the Royal Air Force Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying aircraft within England and to continental Europe. After her release from military service, Marion Orr became the first woman in Canada to own and operate a flying club, when she established Aero Activities in 1949.

Once again, Dr. Macfarlane's activities were the subject of mush discussion, as local residents objected to his proposal for an airport. Both Macfarlane and Orr faced intense opposition from the community to their airport plans. A petition to stop construction of the airport was started by local residents who wanted no part in such a venture.

Marion Orr refused to give up so easily. Marion went to Parliament Hill to request Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent personally assist her in getting a licence to build and operate an airport and flying club. She reportedly refused to leave until she was allowed to speak to the Prime Minister.

Eventually Dr. Macfarlane and Marion Orr succeeded in establishing an airport in Maple. With the help of friends such as Elmer Wells, Rocco Ugolini, John Innes, Jim Creb, and Don Hems, the land was cleared, the were runways leveled and a club office built.

The Maple Airport held its grand opening in 1955 as a private airport for small aircraft. The only buildings at the airport were the original farmhouse and a barn, which was used to store airport supplies and maintenance equipment for aircraft, in addition to the newly constructed office building. The airfield consisted of two grass runways in an X pattern, one 3700 feet and the other 2500 feet, lit by lanterns for night landings.

Maion Orr established the Maple Flying Club along with Sally Wagner. It is interesting to note that both Orr and Wagner were among the first Canadian female to receive their pilots licences. During the first summer at the airport, Marion lived in the old farmhouse along with Sally Wagner.

Marion would remain at the Maple Airport until 1960, when she sold the Maple Flying Club. She later went on to become airport manager and Chief Flying Instructor at the Buttonville Airport.

By 1958, commercial transport aircraft began using the Maple Airport, making it the third busiest private, uncontrolled (no tower) commercial airport in Canada. At its peak, the Maple Airport handled 2500 to 3000 flights a month.

In 1960, the Maple Airport received $200, 000 worth of upgrades and improvements. The runways were paved and plans were made to construct a row of hangars, but this never came to fruition. Instead several new tie-downs were installed and later, parallel taxiways were build beside both runways.

Around this time, the farmhouse then became the clubhouse for the Maple Flying Club, which consisted of three instructors and five planes.

The 1960s was a time of growth for Vaughan Township too, with its population reaching nearly 16,000 people, triple what it was in the 1930s. Canadian National Railways opened their marshaling yard in 1965 directly south of the airport between Rutherford Road and Highway 7, paving the way for major industrial and residential development in Vaughan.

Residential sub-divisions began springing up between the airport's east border and Keele Street. Further residential and commercial development around the Keele Street / Major MacKenzie area occurred throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As well, in the late 1970s, land directly west of the airport on the 5th Concession was being cleared for Canada's Wonderland theme park, which had it's grand opening in May 1981.

On July 11, 1968, the original barn at the airport burned down in a spectacular fire that also destroyed a Piper airplane.

In 1971, the Township of Vaughan became the Town of Vaughan. Exactly twenty years to the day after this event, Vaughan was designated a city (1 January 1991).

In 1975, Dr. Macfarlane sold the airport to Great Pine Ridge Developments.

In 1977, Fernand Boulanger opened a French cuisine restaurant, Auberge Maple Inn, at the airport in the old farmhouse. Boulanger, a celebrated chef, helped save the lives of hundreds of Jews hiding from the Nazis during World War II by secreting them across the border between France and Switzerland. He died recently (on June 17, 2006) of cancer.

The airport, like many, had its share of mishaps. In 1978, an airplane skidded off the far end of the runway and into the West Don River bordering the east side of the property.

Adele Fogle, president of Neiltown Air Ltd., relocated her business to the Maple Airport after the closure of the King City Airport in 1984. She later become the Operations Manager of the Maple Airport as well. "It was a bit of a mess; rundown by this time," says Fogel, who made the best of her short time at the Maple Airport. By this time however, the airport's days were numbered.

The urbanization of Vaughan and the Maple area was inevitable and there was little interest in maintaining a private airport in the midst of so much prime development land. The suburban sprawl in the York Region had sealed the airport's fate. On September 20, 1987, over 200 people attended the official closing of the Maple Airport, ending over 30 years of flying in Maple.

Adele Fogle moved Neiltown Air Ltd. to the Guelph Airpark, where is it currently known as Aviation International Inc. The airport's buildings were torn down and the runways ripped up, making it yet another in a growing list of small private airports in the Toronto area to disappear from the maps. By 1993, developers began building houses on the property and the landscape changed forever.

Today, not the slightest trace of the old Maple Airport remains. The only reminder of the property's past is a small park on Avro Road, named Maple Airport Park. The naming of streets Lockheed and Mustang is also a nod to the former airport.

During the official opening ceremonies for Maple Creek Public School (one of two schools that now sits on the property) on March 25, 2003, staff and students paid tribute to the former airport.
Special thanks to Catharine Macfarlane, Marylin Dickson, Don & Helen Hems, Elmer Wells and Adele Fogel for their assistance with this article.


photo from previous post above . . . Maple Airport

[schmoo]

That is a very cool pic...not only of the airport, but of Wonderland.

Thanks for that.

Now that I've had a taste, I want to see more.

[bizjets101]

I've flown in and out of Maple, was there when a Cessna spun out on the runway, but the most interesting was the drug run that crashed into the trees where Wonderland now is!!

The US registered Cessna was flying south above the 400, the private pilot (with low hours) flying in light snow at night, and was busy keying the mike, and looking out the window for the runway lights to come on - when the flew right into the trees.

Aircraft remained suspended in the trees, as they climbed out and left a trail leading to Jane Street.

[howard40]

Hung out around maple in the 60s as a small kid, and again in the 80's when I based my plane there for the winters around 83 to 87 as there is not much flying where I live in the winter.
was flying with my dad the night the barn burned down! that was neat and he was afraid to land the tcraft in all the floating "glowing" ash from the fire.

had first ride there in about 64 or so in the back of a champ , two kids one belt, dad up front with a brand new lic! used to sit in car and watch him do circuits in lessons! whole family waiting in car , heck it was an outing... one car family etc...

got gum when we went flying! (for ears, wonder I am not deaf!) tcraft with no headsets equals loud!! noone wore headsets in the 60s (almost nooone!) in fact I learned in the 79/80 season and noone wore them then either!! how things change!

Never had a headset till about 1987! very few did! (rich guys? headsets were crap in the early 80's)

almost all the planes were hand start,in the early maple days and 60's, and the gas jockeys would give you a prop flip,to start you , after a fill up.

Remember the swimming pool full of leaves and it had turtles in it! wild ones!

all kinds of models hanging from roof in farmhouse club house.

saw folks getting ifr ratings with orange plastic sheets for windscreen and orange glasses to make it impossible to see out of airplane I guess?
still have my dads leather flying jacket(from the 60's) with TFC (toronto flying club) crest and still wear it a few times a year flying,....... you know why....

[PilotDAR]

Yes, I remember Maple. I used to drive to there, pick up the 182, and fly to work at Toronto International, back when that was a practical thing to do! Then, Maple was closed.....

Flying home to Pottageville aerodrome from Downsview one beautiful afternoon, I happened over the now closed Maple airport. The airport had succumbed to the high land values, and would soon be a residential subdivision. It had been officially closed for the better part of a year, but was still occasionally used by the odd aviator. Indeed, a friend of mine, from whom I had purchased my Cessna 150, still parked his 172 there. It was the only aircraft left, and was tucked right up to the former club house.

As I looked down, I noticed with some surprise that one paved runway was now completely gone, and the other was was well on it’s way out. The pavement was being collected for recycling. Satisfying myself that it could be safely done, I landed on what remained of the last runway, and pulled off to the side. I shut down, and went over to talk to the operators of the pavement eating machine.

To my surprise, the operator of the machine said hello to me by name! Who was this, and how did he know me? Well at least he would not chew me out for landing in the middle of his day’s work… It turns out that we had met the previous summer, when another friend and I flew in to his neighour’s cottage, and he was there. Apparently I had talked flying to him – wow what a memory!

Anyway… “how long will the rest of this runway be here?”. “all gone by the end of the day”. Hmmm, friend's 172 was there, and would like to depart on a runway. I left my plane parked where it was, and went over to his. Sure enough, the key was still hidden where he had always left it, more than a year ago. I checked it over. It had fuel and was ready to go. I fired it up and taxied it out to what was left of the runway. Off I went with no problem. I flew promptly up to Pottageville where I left it parked and went for a phone (this was well before the common use of cell phones). I called the company which he owned, and explained that I needed a ride back to Maple fast. Sure enough, a short time later, a rather perplexed truck driver arrived to pick me up. He drove me back to my plane. I sent word with him that my friend must be told of the new home of his plane. I greeted the pavement eating machine fellow, and gave him a wave as I left. By that time there was no longer enough runway to use, so I took off across the grass tiedown area which had not been affected.

I landed back into Pottageville thinking I was probably the last plane to use Maple airport, as the next day it was completely devoid of runways. My friend phoned a few days later to thank me for getting his plane out.

Maple is just a memory now, but a good one....

[flyalmaguin]

I got my private license at the Maple Airport (Maple Air Services) in 1970. I loved that airport, and it really hurt to see it shut down. Best little restaurant (maybe you remember Peggy - her business), and of course the 400 Flying Club, and a group of guys loosely referred to as the Goose Squadron. Remember Sam, AME would visit the airport clubhouse and restaurant once a month and do a slew of medicals on site. I remember my first flight was in CF-VBA, soloed in CF-WQH (had the nick name Whiskey sour for some reason or other). Maybe you remember CFI's- Vic or Dave, or some of the instructors like Lou (ex- WWII RCAF - best instructor in the world) Mike, Ken, or Randy. Couple of these dudes went onto Air Canada.

The Maple airport was founded by Marion Orr who was a ferry pilot during WW II.

Maybe you remember Kevin and Terry from King City, or the
late Herb. Herb ran an aircraft salvage business at King til it was sold and then he built an airport in Beaverton if I am not mistaken. Herb was big in COPA and EAA.

I was so blessed to be young at that time and to have made the acquaintances of so many wonderful (and older) people with skills, education and above all patience...

It's a horrible shame general aviation of the likes above is dying a slow painful death here in Canada. They (the industry) seem to cry about the looming pilot shortage, yet the atmosphere above (being able to roam around a local flying patch as a kid) is what I remember. It's also what, at a young age, cemented my desire to get my PPL which eventually I did. I didn't move on to a career flying, but I'm sure many did.

I took my first ever fixed-wing airplane ride at Maple, thanks to a gift certificate from my uncle who was working on his PPL at the time (my first overall flight was in a Hughes 500 at the CNE/Ontario Place waterfront). I distinctly remember taking off in a C-172 and flying past the newly constructed Wonder Mountain. It was just a lattice structure, partly covered in shotcrete.

Later in my youth, I remember being in line for the Minebuster roller-coaster and watching planes take off from Maple, both day and night.