Photo Collection #6 - Lee Airport & 8" Criterion Telescope
Well, These Are Not Models, But...

Here are a few links to pages I have regarding my days of yore:

- Holly Hill Harbor

- Model airplanes

- Model boats

- Electrical / electronics projects

- Model helicopters

- Model rockets

- My model train

- Woodworking projects

- Photos of earlier times

- 1969 Camaro SS

- Southern Senior High School Yearbook (Harwood, Maryland)

  • Senior Class "Official" Photos

  • Senior Class Childhood Photos

- Parole Plaza, Annapolis, Maryland

Other pages:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Kirt Blattenberger standing next to the Piper Colt at Lee Airport in Edgewater, Maryland - Airplanes and Rockets

AOPA certificate for first airplane ride - Airplanes and Rockets

My first-ever airplane ride certificate

Kirt Blattenberger: my solo certificate from Duke Blythe CFIA&I, Lee Airport, Edgewater, Maryland, May 7, 1977, taken in Piper Colt (a real piece of junk) - Airplanes and Rockets

My solo flight certificate

Sanders Ground School Certificate - Airplanes and Rockets

My ground school certificate

Annapolis Flying Service Ad in June 6, 1975 "Evening Capital" - RF Cafe

Annapolis Flying Service ad in June 6, 1975 Evening Capital newspaper

Me with the Piper Colt that I flew while taking flying lessons at Lee Airport, Edgewater, Maryland. I went into the USAF before being able to take my check ride because of icy weather (November 1978). I had 50+ hours logged & FAA written passed - never did get my license (heavy sigh). Note the Annapolis Flying Service ad above showing flying lessons were something like $20/hour solo, and $28/hour with the instructor!

Photo of Lee Airport, Edgewater, Maryland, by John Shoemaker - Airplanes and RocketsErie Airport, about a mile from where I live now, charges around $240/hour with instructor for their least expensive airplane. According to the Inflation Calculator hosted on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, $28 in 1977 is the equivalent to $120 in 2018, so the effective cost has doubled.

To the right is an aerial image of Lee Airport; and the surrounding area from sometime in the 2005-2006 timeframe. The airport itself has not changed much since I last flew from there in Fall of 1978.

Lee Airport headquarters - Airplanes and RocketsAirplanes and Rockets - Quonset (Quanset) hut at Lee Airport, Edgewater, MDI cannot believe that this same old white building is still the headquarters. I can remember walking in to pick up the keys to the Piper Colts (three of them at the time). In the back room, they used to keep the cut off shirt tails of all the people who soloed there. Mine might still be in there. It would be nice to visit some day and see it they would let me look for it.

This Quonset hut is probably the one where I took my ground school. It was definitely a cool environment.

Kirt Blattenberger with his 8" Newtonian telescope on an equatorial mount - Airplanes and RocketsHere is my me with my 8" Criterion Newtonian reflector telescope, Mayo, Maryland, circa 1983. A clock drive was added later. I buried an AC line to the pier for powering the drive. This was in the Fall of the year I separated from the U.S. Air Force. The bigger finder scope is a 2" refractor. While stationed at Robins Air Force Base, in Warner Robins, Georgia, I had ordered a Criterion 6" Newtonian telescope, but it never arrived. It took me a year of writing to them to get my purchase refunded. This 8" model was found in a camera shop in Baltimore, Maryland, about 30 miles from where I lived. If memory serves me correctly, I paid about $800 for the telescope and then another $100 for the clock drive.

 

 

Posted November 10, 2021
(updated from original post on 12/12/2015)