Beachside Vacation Lifestyle 2019-20

www.beachsidevacations.com | 13 From that once run-down and untended landing strip known as Harold F. Willson Memorial Field, Woody Faison built a thriving airport community. The field served Cessnas, Piper Cubs and Beechcrafts and also the infrequent multi-engine plane. Once, a WW II vintage B-25 landed there on its way to become part of a permanent exhibit aboard the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point. Charlie Way, chairman of the board of the Beach Company and son-in-law of J.C. Long, who, through his Palm Realty Company (precursor to the Beach Company) helped establish the airfield, recalled the popular “breakfast fly-ins” Faison orga- nized at the thriving little strip. Primarily, the airfield was a convenient way for aviators to reach Isle of Palms, at the time accessible from the mainland only by crossing the two-lane Ben Sawyer Bridge at Sullivan’s Island, then proceeding northeast across Breach Inlet. Edna Young, Faison’s flying protégé, recalled that residents of Goat Island would moor their boats at the airfield and walk across the runway to the stores and the beach. In time, the airfield was home to more than a dozen planes and handled hundreds of transient operations annually. The busy little airport closed in 1984, and Palmetto Air Ser- vice moved to Charleston International Airport, then to the East Cooper Airport – now now Mount Pleasant Regional Airport. BOAT RENTALS | FISHING CHARTERS | SHIP STORE | GROUP EVENTS 50 41ST AVE., ISLE OF PALMS SC | WWW.IOPMARINA.COM MORE THAN A MARINA. It’s a way of life. MARINA HOURS MON. - SUN. Seasonal 843.886.0209 MARINA MARKET MON. - SUN. Seasonal 843.886.3054 ISLE OF PALMS