Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 11, 1995
Dorothy Gladd from Monroe Gladd's video of first official ride.
Courtesy of Gary EnglishThe Saranac Lake Flying Club appears to have been started in June 1941, although one source places it in the thirties. In any case, it disbanded in August, 1942, presumably because of World War II.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 15, 1941
80 YEAR OLD DOWNSTATER GIVES O. K. TO FLYING
Liking the taste of his first airplane ride so well last week, Charles E. Morley, 80 year old resident of Jordan, N. Y., insisted that airplane travel be his mode of transportation upon his return Monday from Saranac Lake to his home.
Mr. Morley has been in Saranac Lake visiting his grandson, Francis J. Mahoney, an officer in the flying club of that village. Last week he took a spin in the clouds with Andrew Fortune in the Saranac Lake Flying club's new Aronca plane and asked for more. He made the trip from the Lake Placid airport back to Jordan in two hours and 15 minutes. Mr. Morley remembers General Grant upon his visit to Syracuse after the Civil war and prior to his election as president.
Plattsburgh Daily Press, August 30, 1942
FLI-RITE SCHOOL BUYS CABIN PLANE
Sale of the cabin plane, Miss Saranac, to the Fli-Rite School of Aviation at Plattsburgh and Burlington, Vt., this week climaxed the career of the Saranac Lake Flying club which came into existence fifteen months ago.
Members of the disbanded club were Andrew J. Fortune, Clem [?] Williams, Francis Maloney, Edward J. Keavney, William Wiles and Dr. Howard Amen. Fortune, Williams and Wiles are now in military service.
The two-passenger plane was a frequent visitor at the Plattsburgh airport and was housed here at the time of its sale.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 28, 1948
Meeting Planned To Start Flying Club
A meeting to take the first steps in the formation of a flying club for local residents and visitors will be held at 7:30 o'clock Thursday night in Room 5 of the Harrietstown town hall.
The club will be open to men and women from 16 years of age and over. It is not necessary for members to possess a pilot's license and plans will be made to offer instruction in flying in the club-owned airplanes from qualified flight instructors at the Saranac Lake airport.
Mr. any Mrs. Harold Rideout, airport managers, will be present at the meeting. Anyone interested in the club is invited to attend.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 30, 1957
The Saranac Lake Flying Club will meet at the Administration Bldg. at the Saranac Lake Airport tonight at 7 o'clock.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 22, 1958
MOVE TO FORM FLYING CLUB
A new flying club is being formed in the tri-lake area and all flying enthusiasts, whether full fledged pilots, student pilots or persons who have yet to fly are invited to join the membership of this fledgling unit.
A group of area pilots, headed by William Wigger, are launching the flying club program and have called an organizational meeting to be held in the lounge of the Saranac Lake Airport administration building Friday at 8 in the evening. All men and women interested in the creation of a flying unit are invited to attend the club's first meeting, and particularly welcome will be air-minded enthusiasts from Lake Placid and Tupper Lake. The flying club, Wigger pointed out, is not restricted to Saranac lake, but rather has as one of its subjects a unit comprised of members from all three communities.
First move of the club, if enough support is found for its program, is to purchase its own plane, and approximately a dozen members would be needed for the club to place its own plane in a hangar.
Wigger said that there was a large number of flyers in the area, and many more interested in learning to fly. The latter group, he said, would receive extensive benefits as a member of a flying club such as is planned.
James Shapiro, airport manager, has agreed to act in a consulting capacity for the club. The organizational meeting Friday will be held for the purpose of determining the number of persons interested, and if the interest warrants it, a club name will be selected and officers named.
From an article by Alice Wareham in a 1979 Adirondack Daily Enterprise, quoted by Howard Riley, in the Enterprise, July 7, 2007
Lee J. Gladd, a pioneer in private plane ownership, today ruminates on the dynamic development of the air travel which helped, then killed, the family business.
Dorothy Gladd from Monroe Gladd's video of first official ride.
Courtesy of Gary EnglishGladd had his first taste of air travel in the 1930's when the newly-formed Saranac Lake Flying Club decided to purchase a plane. Its members turned to Gladd Brothers (who owned the Ford agency) and the local business firm, versed in unusual requests from wealthy campers, obtained one.
Airports in the 1930's were informal, often consisting of the smoothest hayfield in the area graced with a windsock on a pole and possibly a wooden shed to hold a plane or two.
The now-senior Andrew Fortune and Gladd traveled to Plattsburgh where the new $1,750, 65-h.p. Aeronica had been delivered to a field next to the Diamond Match Company. With Fortune at the controls they flew back to the Lake Placid Airport.
Several days later Fortune flew the plane into the local airport, then located opposite Major Dawson's Restaurant, at Saranac Inn on "Saranac Lake Aviation Day" and the new flying machine was christened the "Miss Saranac." Dorothy Gladd received the first official ride.
The experience convinced Gladd that planes were here to stay. He promptly bought himself one and leaned to fly, though for him it was the not the glamorous sport it was for others. "It was the mechanical side which interested me," he explains, "not riding around."
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