At 91, He’s Still Flying: Dan Willis Remembers Amboy Airport!

At just 13 years old, Dan Willis rode his bicycle from Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood to Amboy Airport for 20-minute flying lessons that cost three dollars.

Now 91 and still flying, Dan returns to the former airport grounds at Reed Webster Park to share firsthand memories of learning to fly on the grass runway, soloing at 16, completing his cross-country flight, owning five airplanes, working with aerial advertising banners, and experiencing one unforgettable spin during his pilot check ride.

Dan also discusses the important place Amboy Airport holds in Central New York aviation history, the commercial airlines that once served the airport, and the remarkable pilots and public figures whose names appear in its historic records.

Recorded on location at Reed Webster Park, this conversation preserves the memories of someone who did not simply study Amboy Airport’s history—he lived it.

Visit the Amboy Aviation Exhibit at:

412 Dunning Drive
Camillus, New York

The exhibit is generally open Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Check the organization’s current schedule before visiting.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people preserving the stories, history, and communities of Central New York.

Skip Happens Podcast / Inner Harbor Cast
Hosted by Skip Clark

Every boot tells a story.

Transcript

Back At The Former Airfield

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody, and uh once again, welcome back. It's the Inner Harbor Cast. My name is Skip Clark. I am I'm home. I grew up in Camillas. I am in Camillas. I am at Reed Webster Park, but it's not just a park. This, well, it is just a park now. But let's go back a little bit because uh the gentleman sitting to my right, your left, if you're looking at the screen. This guy, Mr. Dan Willis, he uh, you know, and this was the Amboy Airport, you flew into the to this airport, right, Dan?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yes, I learned to fly here when I was 13.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

You were 13 and you learned to fly here.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yes. Uh I I grew up in the valley area and I used to push my bike up uh Turnpike Hill next to uh uh community hospital.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

And I would ride all the way from uh the top of Onadoga Hill here to take my uh 20-minute flying lesson for three dollars. Uh and three

Learning To Fly At Age 13

SPEAKER_00 1:00

dollars was a lot of money then. I had to uh move lawns, yeah, yeah, set pins in the bowling alley, whatever you could do to make a make a little money.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Dan, when when you come out here and being a part of the the aviation historical uh committee society here in Camillas, you've got the museum, which we're gonna talk about in a moment. But uh what what are you feeling when you walk out here? I know I heard you say, hey, right behind those trees, that was the end of the runway, and this and that. What's that feeling? What are you thinking right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Well, number one, I'm I've been uh trying to be part of this for over 20 years. Uh and we finally got someone to pay attention to us. Uh, was Tom Kioski really took a hold of this, bless his soul. Tom passed away a couple years ago, and his wife is in uh responsible for everything that's going on here today. And I'm very thankful for her. But I'm just blown away that people are beginning to to understand this was the Syracuse Municipal Airport. Hancock Field was a military base. There was no flying over there for private aviation until after the war. Uh, after the war, the flying schools were at Amboy, Ward Air Service, where I learned to fly, was moved to Hancock Field. So I got a lot of my primary flight training here at Amboy, landing on the grass. They wouldn't let us land on the runway. And uh, but when they moved to Hancock, uh, by that time I was 16 and I soloed in. I had 16 and got my private license when I was 17. But that's kind of the story I have here.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So let me add do you mind if I say your age? No. All right, you're 91. 91. I was born still flying.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Born in 1935.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

God bless you. Man, you look great. You're you're doing this. I mean, look at technology, we're making it happen, but you're back on what was the Syracuse Airport here in Amboy. Um, and you were flying solo at the age of 17. 16.

Cross-Country Flying Before GPS

SPEAKER_01 3:05

16. All right, and you did a cross-country flight.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

When was that during the uh getting a private license? There's requirements you have to do. One of them is a hundred-mile cross country. Uh, and you didn't have electronic stuff that we did at WOW, then watch out window. And uh one of the requirements was a hundred mile cross country alone. And I selected Batavia, New York, which is 102 miles from that's where they do the air show. Yeah, but I flew there and uh got my logbook signed and flew back.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

You land on the grass. Uh I did. Now, why is landing on grass more difficult than landing on

Grass Landings And Taildragger Skills

SPEAKER_01 3:50

what would be nowadays pavement?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

If you if you look at a late airplane, many of them have a nose wheel and you steer that with your rudder pedals, and it's quite easy. You land on the back wheels and let the nose wheel down, and you're on the ground. With a tailwheel airplane or uh tail dragger is everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, where the with the plane kind of settles together.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

When you touch the ground, it gets squirrely. You have to re you have to really uh uh be ready for it. So they they teach you the fly on the grass, then you move over to the ash wall. I myself I like to land on the front wheels, make a wheel landing, and then let the tail cheating, yeah. Well, you also do that during crosswinds,

Owning Planes And A Surprise Spin

SPEAKER_00 4:35

all right. So you have a lot more control.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

You've been flying a long time. And um, have you ever worked like commercially for an airline?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

No. Okay. I had a friend who was a uh a uh corporate pilot, and I got to ride with him in the right seat of many big aeroplanes.

unknown 4:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Uh each craft uh 200. Uh we flew in and out of uh uh Kennedy Airport and uh Washington DC. One night we're coming home from Kennedy. We're about 19,000 feet. It's four in the morning. We're flying around thunderstorms, and I'm thinking my wife and my two sons are home in bed. That's where I belong.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

You can't a little uh little shaky.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

I spent my life, my working life as a printer, uh working for my dad, and ultimately I wound up owning his company after he passed away.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Do you own your own airplane?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Uh over the years I've owned five airplanes.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

My first airplane was an Aranka champ that I bought at Cisco Airport for $675 flying. Oh my god. And uh my the uh gentleman who was my uh check pilot to get my private license. I was just talking with his son here this afternoon. And during my flight, uh my uh private pilot check ride, he says, You're gonna have to show me a spin entry and recovery, which I'd never done. And uh we did a spin, it went over the top, it's spinning, and I let go of everything and watching the world go around. And he says from the front seat, Well, aren't you gonna do something about that? So I recovered from the spin, and fortunately, I went back and I read the manual after that. It said the airplane violently changes ends to the amazement of the student.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Oh wow, you know, um, you've lived the life that I've always dreamed of. Um, I'm a huge buff when it comes to aircraft. I got friends that fly. I've just never done it, but I've flown with them. Um, and I'm just amazed. Even when I travel, go on vacation. It's like I walk out onto an airplane, I'm not just going to my seat. I'm like peeking into the cockpit. I'm saying hello to the crew. You know, that's that's what I do. Now, it's much harder to do that nowadays, but let's go back to with the uh with all the security.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah, in my car over there, I've got a security badge so I can get on the ramp at Amboy or at uh Ithaca.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

You can go on the ramp here.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

You want to go past those trees and dig

Airlines At Amboy And Why It Moved

SPEAKER_01 7:10

down a little bit. But uh, you know, that's why we're here today because of the Amboy Airport, because of the fundraising efforts being put forth for the uh the museum that you and your team and and Phyllis and everybody's gotten together to fund, uh, which by the way is right up the road, 412 Dunning Drive. If you've uh you know, if you're watching this and you've never been there, that's where it is. Yeah, uh, but I want to know more about the Amboy Airport. You said there were three airlines that flew.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Three airlines flew here: American Airlines, Robinson Airlines, and uh Colonial Airlines. Okay. I think Colonial become Eastern in later life. And Robinson, I think they were Mohawk. I'm not sure though. Oh Mohawk.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

I remember Mohawk.

unknown 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

But they were uh uh DC threes, DC twos originally.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

They they were the tail where they they had the tailwheels.

unknown 8:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Uh when uh Hancock became the municipal airport, one of the big reasons for it was that the runway here was too short and they couldn't lengthen it, and the airplanes were getting bigger and faster. Oh, yeah. They needed more airports. But uh, I wish we still had it. Would it be a great place for general aviation in the sheriff's department, anybody else, you know?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

It must have been um going back to those days, just living close to the airport and watching the planes come in. I mean, we don't have all the distractions, uh we didn't have them, or whoever didn't have them back in those days. That the distractions that we have now. So to see an airplane come in like that had to be like that, had to be entertainment in itself.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

It it was head over to the airport and watch and it put and um I kept my airplanes at Nedro. Do you believe Nedro had a little airport on the Indian reservation?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yes, I've actually been there, and they used to fly uh I think some Cessnas out of there and they had the banners behind them. They they used to do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

I was the ground crew on the banners.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Really? Yeah were you the one like running down the runway behind holding on to the post and they'd snap it out of your hand. Uh my long-gone uncle, my uncle Chuck used to take us there all the time out in Nedro to watch them.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

We uh we would roll the banner up around it and it was about eight foot high. Uh-huh. We'd roll it up and it'd be about so big around, and we put it in the airplane on our shoulders. You go back into the luggage compartment and fly down to Ithaca and Binghamton set up and snatch the banner and toe it over the football fields down there, then then fly it home with this banner all rolled up inside the airplane.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Oh wow. Yeah, that was fun. Wow. So just going back, your memories here, just everything about that flying in to this airport that is you know, I gosh, and now

The Exhibit And Famous Signatures

SPEAKER_01 9:45

you know you got the waste beds, you got the tree line, but still it's just you know what? It's just the memories.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Uh it is. It blows my mind. Up in our uh exhibit, we call it the exhibit. If we call it a museum, we fall under a whole new set of rules.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

It's an exhibit, everybody. Exhibit.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Okay. Uh, we have a log book that was found, and in that time, anyone who flew into Amboy signed in these log books. We got uh Limberg's signature up there.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yeah, that's right. Yes. Uh Amelia, your heart, Amelia?

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Amelia was here twice.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

All right. Uh who else? Who else? Kate Smith. Kate Smith.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Uh Jimmy Doo. Jimmy Doolittle. Okay. Wiley post. Uh Wrongway Gorgon.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

The wrong way story. I think I heard you say something about that. Yeah, went the wrong way.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

He's supposed to went west, but he went east.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

He ended up in Europe.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, he winded up in trouble, too. But anyways, there's the story of him is up here.

unknown 10:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

I encourage anyone that would like to know more about it. Uh, our our exhibit is open on Sundays from one to four, and we have uh always have two or three of our

Simulator Plans And Society Meetings

SPEAKER_00 11:05

members there to help you with it. Pretty much a self-explained exhibit. You can walk around and see the displays and answer questions. Uh, we just recently put in a simulator.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Oh, an actual flight simulator.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Brand new simulator. I saw it, we I saw it come out of the box three days ago. So I don't know if it's operating now. One of our members is a uh retired plane instructor, and he will be helping people with it, I'm sure. I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, gonna have to check that out. Tell us about the the society itself. Are you looking for members? Are you looking what if I have somebody watching this that says, you know what? I flew for so many years and I'd love to be involved in this. Flying is a big part of my life.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

We would love to have you show up on I'm trying to remember the date.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

I'll have to look in my I'm 91 and I have a I have a well you're doing pretty damn well for 91, my friend. I am so proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I have a smartphone.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, so it just makes you smarter, right? Let's see. Doesn't make me smarter. My phone does not do that.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Uh it's not worth it. I won't waste your time. Uh well, we can find out. Okay. And I'll post it. Yeah, it's uh there are morning meetings. We tried to have an evening meeting, but no one showed up. And the people that do show up are all retired people mostly. Uh and they don't want to come out at night. So we have morning meetings, 10 o'clock meetings on, I think it's the third Thursday of the month. Okay 10 in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

All right, we'll look it up. But most importantly, you need to come out and check out

Visiting Hours And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 12:40

the exhibit, which is 412 Dunning Drive. Um, follow, follow them. I know you have a website, I know you're getting on the socials, everything takes time. And uh, of course, we're here today at Reed Webster Park on the grounds of the old Amboy Airport. And uh, well, it's just I am so honored that uh Dan Willis that you're sitting right here next to me and being somebody that you know, God bless you. Uh you've flown into this airport, you've got memories here. You you still fly. Um are you do you still live in the area?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I live in uh on uh Taunton area.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Oh, okay. All right, yeah, right around the corner. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, and it's strangely enough, when I used to ride my bicycle from the valley area across, I used to eat my lunch on my very up front lawn that I have right now, and it was just an empty field.

unknown 13:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

It was uh an 18-mile trip, round trip by bicycle.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So oh my goodness. My camera keeps doing funny things here. I don't know what's the wind is blowing. I don't know. It's it thinks it's a smart camera, so it's following people, but it's not following the right people. So that's all right. I'm gonna hold it. Well, sorry, I can lean in, but that's that's it. Okay. Oh, see? See how it works. Yeah, there you go. It's technology. It was my fault. But, anyways, Dan, I want to thank you for coming by, spending a few minutes with us. I know we got people over there looking at your exhibit, the pictures. Uh, you still have time to come out. We uh we're going till four o'clock today. Yes, I'm gonna stay here till the end. Come on out and talk to Dan because he will tell you. It's just when he started talking to me over at the uh the table where he was set up, and then other people came up just the stories and just the the memories, and you telling like what happened to the the hangars and the other buildings that were on site, which there's still one around, but not here. They've disassembled it and moved it, but yeah, but everything else is pretty much gone.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

But uh well, it was a pleasure to uh talk with you. I'm happy that you're here and and please come visit our uh exhibit.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Are you there every Sunday?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Well, I'm not there every Sunday, but somebody is. Somebody is, yeah. Awesome. I bless you. I have uh some other responsibilities just now on the weekends. Uh so uh I take my turn.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Everybody's got to take their turn, but it's a great exhibit. Get out, check it out Sunday afternoons one to one to four.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

One to four.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

And uh it's 412 Dunning Drive. Uh you can, you know, nowadays you can GPS it, Google it, you'll find it.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

If you're coming, uh if you're in front of uh a Home Depot down on Milt Nab, you're walking distance.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, just take a left, go up the hill, it's gonna be on your left. On the left, that's correct. I grew up out here, I know that.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Come see us.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

I used to get in trouble there. Yep, but that's all right. So, anyways, Dan Willis, uh, thank you for your memories, your expertise, and uh you're still flying in this age. Yep, and you were just telling me you're gonna take a trip.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Uh, next Friday, I'm going to Thurmount or to uh uh Maryland, going uh to uh out south of Baltimore, my son and I and our wives uh going to a family reading.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Any sleep in the back, and you and your son are up there.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

My wife will be asleep in the back. We always had an airplane, so it doesn't bother her at all to go flying.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

That's awesome. Well, thank you. It's so good to see you. God bless you, and I hope to see you again soon.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Thank you, my friend. Right here on uh the Inner Harbor Cast and Skip Happens, Mr. Dan Willis.