The Place
The Plains Airport is open to the public and was established in April 1940. This small single runway airport does not currently have a control tower, however it does have a wind sock. Airport communications: CTAF: 122.9. Airport Services: parking is outside with tie downs. Airframe and powerplant service are available, bottled or bulk oxygen are not available. The elevation at the airport is 2467.1 ft. and it is 1 mile NW of Plains, MT.
Runway 13/31
Dimensions: 4651 x 75 ft. / 1418 x 23 m
Surface: asphalt, in excellent condition
Traffic pattern: left
The Person
Perhaps fittingly, Penn Stohr was born in 1902, even before the first powered flight took place, in 1903. Born to fly, Stohr became a consummate pilot and a builder of aviation in Montana, helping to build the first airstrip in the area, not far from the present Penn Stohr Field. That 3,000 foot strip, built in the '30s as a public works project, is still in use.
A bit of a daredevil in his early flying days, his first plane was an OX-5 Swallow which he kept in the barn on his ranch. In September of 1927 Stohr helped to escort Charles Lindbergh from Butte to Missoula on Lindbergh's victory tour after his historic transAtlantic flight. Stohr began flying for Johnson Flying Service in 1933, remaining in their employ until his death in 1957. Stohr and co-pilot Bob Vallance of Hamilton were both killed that year when their Ford trimotor clipped a hillside and crashed while spraying a 900 acre patch of sagebrush.
Witnesses on the ground said one engine appeared to falter and the left wing tip clipped a hillside. The plane cartwheeled across the uneven landscape and all but disintegrated when it hit a tree. The plane's gas tanks exploded in fire. Stohr and Vallance probably died instantly.
"He could get in and out of a shorter field, with a bigger load, on a hotter day, at higher elevation, than just about anyone in the business," wrote another aviation pioneer, Frank W. Wiley, in his 1966 book, "Montana and the Sky."
Excerpts from a
Missoulian news article on Stohr and the dedication of Stohr Field follow.
Soaring tribute
Plains to honor Montana flying legend W. Penn Stohr with dedication ceremony at new airport
He flew planes in Plains.
And by the time W. Penn Stohr had chomped on his last cigar, had winked over his shoulder at his last nerve-wracked passenger, had made his final hair-raising landing on a frozen mountain lake, he was the stuff of aviation lore.
On Saturday, Plains will celebrate its new $4 million airport and dedicate it in Stohr's name.
"Penn Stohr Field. It's just a natural," said Missoula historian Steve Smith. "He was a pioneer in every sense of the word."
Stohr died at age 54 in 1957, one of two victims of a fiery crash while spraying sagebrush west of Townsend.
He was one of seven inaugural inductees into the Museum of Mountain Flying's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1995. Stohr's portrait hangs with the others at the Missoula International Airport, just below that of Robert Johnson, founder of Johnson Flying Service and Stohr's employer for his last 24 years.
...The story goes that a visitor to Plains wanted a ride with Stohr. Either the man or his wife - accounts differ - said they wouldn't pay if he did not get a thrill.
...Stohr took his passenger on a historic flight - the first under the bridge on the Clark Fork River in Plains. The man fainted.
"Dad was always asked: 'Did you get your money?' And he said, 'You know, I can't remember,' " Burke recalled.
...When Stohr reached Plains, he put down on Main Street. His license was yanked for six months for the stunt.
"Mother said it was the hardest time of his life because he could not fly," Burke wrote in a remembrance of her father. "He became an excellent pilot and a very safe pilot after that."
From The Missoulian