Finleyville Airport marks many changes over 70 years
Tom Riemer is manager of Finleyville Airport and a former American Airlines pilot.
Chester is the dog of Diane and John DiSalle of McMurray, and frequently visits Finleyville Airport.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter
Two RV autocrafts fly over Finleyville Airport during a fly-in event in this 2016 file photo.
Joanna Coates, 2, of Peters Township, laughs with her grandmother, Donna Coates of South Park, at the Finleyville fly-in event.
A state police helicopter arrives at Finleyville Airport for the fly-in event.
Finleyville Airport was founded in 1947 and was purchased in 1989 by a group of 20 pilots.
What’s the best way to avoid standing in lines at a huge airport while waiting for a security check or a flight? Probably buying your own plane. But once you purchase an aircraft, where do you keep it?
“You can’t take it apart and put it in your garage yet,” says Tom Riemer, who can be found many a morning tooling around atop a plateau in Union Township checking on Washington County’s “other” airport – Finleyville.
Pilots and their passengers have been landing and taking off from what became known as Finleyville Airport since 1947 when Stanley Siggins established a grass landing strip on what had been a farm field.
In 1989, the airport property was auctioned and a group of about 20 pilots purchased it for $275,000. Complications ensued, and it took two years to complete the sale of the 67-acre airfield. Although the airport is a privately owned corporation, it is available for public use with fuel service and tie-down parking for aircraft.
The grass landing strip has been replaced by a 2,505-foot asphalt runway with low-intensity lighting, although some pilots prefer to alight on a lawn because it’s softer on landing gear.
According to a 2011 Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation’s report on airports’ economic impact, 40-some aircraft are based at Finleyville, which had more than 9,000 operations – landings and take-offs – in 2010. It’s known as a “reliever” airport, because operations there mean fewer planes taxi and circle than its larger neighbors, Pittsburgh International and Allegheny County airports.
Although Finleyville averages 26 operations per day, a summer morning at Finleyville Airport was a quiet one. Bailey, a corgi mix, ran from the front of a hangar to greet a visitor arriving, not by plane, but by car. “We’ve been here since ’75,” says Marti Lambert of Venetia, who with her husband, Marty, were out for some exercise with Bailey. “She comes here every morning for her walk.” Over the course of a few hours, there was nary a landing or take-off.
“The relatively low volume of activity at the airport helps to make it an ideal choice for recreational flyers,” according to PennDOT’s Bureau of Aviation.
“I’ve only been around here about 10 years,” Riemer says while showing off the airport he manages. “I flew big iron for the airlines.” Asked about his title, Riemer says, “That depends on who you talk to.”
“Airport czar,” chimes Wes Hutchison of Cecil, who has had a hangar at Finleyville Airport for 12 to 14 years.
Hutchison’s use of the term “czar” is a perfect lead-in to an example of Riemer’s airborne derring-do that involved Mother Russia. The American Airlines pilot watched the Soviet Union breaking up in the early 1990s and decided to see parts of the vast country on his own before it lost its Cold War trappings.
Hampered by bureaucratic red tape in Moscow, his chances of making the trip seemed remote. As tenacious as a raptor, Riemer pursued his goal, zeroing in on the Russian consulate in San Francisco. There, he discovered the reason his entry had been denied. His plane, a Cessna Cutlass, has fuel tanks with long-range capacity.
The Russians apparently feared he was waiting in the wings to pull the same stunt as a 19-year-old German, Mathias Rust, who piloted a small plane that landed in Red Square in 1987, circumventing the vaunted capabilities of Soviet defenses. As a 2005 article in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space magazine pointed out, there was no private aviation in the Soviet Union.
An apparatchik mentality prevailed, and Russians apparently speculated Riemer might be trying to defect.
He assured the Russkies he’d definitely be returning to Alaska and he received the necessary flight permits – still bearing the name of the Soviet Union – to enter Siberian air space.
“I was met by a pair of MiGs,” he recalls, and he was escorted through Soviet air space. Wherever his plane landed, it was encircled by Russian soldiers. “They took me very seriously.”
Having experienced Russia, Riemer visited yet another country in transition: Cuba, beating JetBlue’s first commercial flight to the island nation since 1961 by three days.
“Celebrating my 64th birthday in Havana will certainly be remembered!” he wrote in an email from his next destination, Grand Cayman. “What a culture shock. Had an absolutely wonderful trip. Trip went exactly as I had planned. Have airplane, can travel; life isn’t a dress rehearsal.”
Whether he’s in the area or visiting exotic destinations, Riemer is more than willing to promote the little airport.
“I’ve had people come out and say, ‘Finleyville doesn’t have an airport,'” he says.
In some ways, they’re correct, because Finleyville Airport, 196 Airport Road, Finleyville, is actually in Union Township. But, you get his point.
To help raise the profile of the place, Finleyville Airport hosts an annual open house, known as a “fly-in.” The most recent one took place during this past July Fourth holiday weekend. And there are enough non-aviators who are in on an airport secret: it’s one of the best locations to watch Fourth of July fireworks because, on a clear summer night, so many displays can be seen from what is among the highest hills in Washington County. Crowds bring blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the panorama.
“It’s probably one of the prettiest little acres in Washington County,” Riemer says.