Historic Flight Stops in Sandhills

Flip back the calendar 48 years ago and the first flight of Piedmont Airlines is taking off from Wilmington, NC destination Charlotte, NC. First stop on the trip (these were puddle-jumper flights in those days) is the resort community of Pinehurst/Southern Pines, famous for it's abundance of resort golf and quaint towns and villages.

Fast forward to 2006, Pilots Scott Edward and Jim Zanas recreate this momentous occasion with a re-enactment of the inaugural flight on a DC-3 on a cool Monday morning in February 2006. The airport the pilots flew into may have changed names from Knollwood Air Field to Moore County Regional Airport (MCRA), but the appeal of the tranquil NC Sandhills is still the same for golfers and their fellow passengers.

The event could turn out to be a prophetic one as MCRA is hopeful that regularly scheduled commercial air service will return to the region this summer. The present day Piedmont Airlines, US Airways, discontinued commercial service at the airport in 2002, in large part due to the after effects of 9/11. Future flights would not use the puddle-jump approach, but rather the hub and scope scenario connecting MCRA to a major legacy airline hub city.

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Content for the story above provided by:
The Pilot Newspaper
(910) 692-7271
www.thepilot.com

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