Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
BAC111
at Port
Columbus Int'l Airport, Ohio June '72
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
BAC111
at CLE
(Cleveland), Ohio Mar. '67
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
FH227
at EWR
(Newark) New Jersey June '67
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
FH227
at CLE,
Ohio Mar '67
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
BAC111
at
Pittsburgh Mar '67
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
CV(Convair)440
at
EWR June '67
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
BAC111
at Port
Columbus June '72
Photographer: Bob Garrard Image:
BAC111
at Port
Columbus June '72
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
BAC111
at JFK Apr '69
Photographer: John F. Ciesla
Image:
BAC111 at
JFK Oct '66
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
BAC111 & FH227 at
LGA Feb '70
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
BAC111 at
LGA Aug '66
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
CV240 at LGA
Aug '66
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
CV240 at LGA
May '66
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
CV440
at EWR Dec '59
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
CV440
at LGA Oct '68
Feedback
#1
Photographer: John F. Ciesla Image:
CV240 at EWR
Dec '59
Photographer: Ralph M. Pettersen Image:
FH227 at LGA
Apr '72
Photographer: Ralph M. Pettersen Image:
FH227 at LGA
Mar '72
Photographer: Ralph M. Pettersen Image:
FH227 at LGA
Nov '72
Photographer: Ralph M.Pettersen Image:
FH227 at EWR
Jun '70
Photographer: John Heggblom Image:
CV440 at JFK
Dec '65
Photographer: John Heggblom Image:
CV340 at JFK
Dec '65
Photographer: John Heggblom Image:
BAC111 at JFK? Date uncertain
Photographer: Jacky MIR Image:
CV240
at ITH (Tompkins Co, Ithaca) Jul '61
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227 at
Philadelphia Oct '68
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227 at
Philadelphia Oct '69
Photographer: Alain Demonty Image:
BAC111 at Montreal's
Dorval 1972
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky
Image:
CV440
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
FH227
Photographer: Bob Polaneczky Image:
BAC111
Photographer: Gary Vincent Image:
BAC111
Photographer: Steve Williams Image:
FH227 at EWR
Jul '70
Photographer: Steve Williams Image:
FH227 at EWR
Jul '70
Photographer: Steve Williams Image:
BAC111 at
Pittsburgh Aug '70
Photographer: Dale Redekopp Image:
BAC111 at Glasgow,
Prestwick Mar
'68
More "Photographer" images are yet to come
meanwhile let's look at some other Mohawk Images
By way of
electronic media, I
have met a man named Russ Glindmyer. Russ used to work for
Mohawk
Airlines. During and after that time, he collected photos and
clippings, not only of Mohawk Airlines, but of Robinson, Allegheny,
Piedmont, and USAir, possibly others. He has composed an
"electronic scrapbook" of this material. It was
through
that scrapbook that I came to know of him. He has kindly
offered
to allow me to use images from that scrapbook. I'll be using
some
of the images from Robinson Airlines and Mohawk airlines.
Here's
a photo from the BAC111 era of Mohawk that has Russ in it:
|
Mohawk's Fishing Contest
Of course, that was
a lot of
years ago. Russ now belongs to a group of people who once
worked
for Mohawk. They meet periodically to trade stories and
remember
the good old days of Mohawk. I think the group calls itself
"The
Hawkers." Here's a picture of the Hawkers. See if
you can
identify Russ without looking at the caption:
|
The Hawkers
While some of the
images I'll
present from Russ's scrapbook are identified, like the previous two,
many are not. Perhaps you, the viewer, can help us identify
some
of the places or people we'll illustrate. I'll try to avoid
the
post-Mohawk era and stick to both Mohawk and Robinson Airlines images.
|
Robinson Aviation in Ithaca, 1945
Robinson Airlines Inaugural Flight 1948
Feedback
#2
Robinson Airlines Inaugural Flight
Another View
Robinson Crew with Bob Peach (on the
right)
C.S. Robinson Overseeing Airmail
Loading
Robinson Stewardess Helen Thomas, 1948
August 9, 1951 in Ithaca, NY
Bob Welch and Mike Senio
Part of the team at Ithaca
The fleet and the hangar
The office and the hangar
The Beech 18 at Tri-Cities
Getting ready to go
Can this be ready by 6 AM?
Checking the engine
We keep it running
Who's talking to the crew?
Feedback
#3
Can you identify these?
Feedback
#4
Robinson comes to Oneida Co. Airport
Robinson Airlines Last Day
Fueling Mohawk's DC3
The Boston Proving Flight
Cleared to Taxi
Standing Ready
We fix 'em, you fly 'em
Waiting for the Crew
A DC3 at Ithaca
Early Morning in Ithaca
Into the Wind
The Pilot's Family?
Have a Good Flight
On the Way Out of Town
The "Gaslight" Era comes to Mohawk
Here's a better view of the Gaslighter
And a larger view of the second one
The Gaslight Era began in September of 1960,
Here's the schedule as of Oct.'60
A PhotoOp with dignitaries began the
era
A close-up from the same PhotoOp
Here's a view of the interior of the
Gaslighter
Naturally, there was advertising for
the service
Here's another view of the airplane
And still another view
With time, the Stew's uniform became
more
abbreviated
More advertising
A final color view of the Gaslighter
The Gaslight era was over!
Feedback
#5
Looking back
The Convair Years
Rather than make individual descriptions of
the 40 images, we have arrayed them in number form:
In this Convair group, CV7,24,29, and 30, are Martin 404's.
(Thanks, Russ)
The Fairchild Hiller 227s
The BAC111s
The People and Places
First of all, I'd
like to thank
Russ Glindmyer for his generous permission to use images from his
collection on this site. And not only Russ, but all those
people
who have contributed to his collection. Without
those who
are willing to share images, this site would not be possible.
Many of these pictures were taken over half a century ago.
Very
few were taken by professional photographers. Some of the
photos
were so faded and out-of-focus, I hesitated to use them. But,
without them the pictorial record of Robinson and Mohawk Airlines would
not be as complete as, together, we can make it. Many of the
pictures you will see in this section are not identified.
They
may be from the old days of Robinson Airlines, or some may be from
Allegheny Airlines well after it obtained Mohawk. Indeed, I
have
purposely included some of the Allegheny images because they are almost
sure to include those people that had been a part of Mohawk.
I
hope you enjoy this section of "People and Places."
|
Recent Arrivals
Here's a scene in a
Robinson Airlines Hangar
in Ithaca at about the
time they first used DC3s. The Robinson Captain is
unidentified. The man on the right is Ken Atwell, who later
became Superintendent of O/H.
|
Here's a recent
photograph of Ken Atwell. Appearing with him is Lou
Falkman,
who assisted Russ in making his CD of airline images. We have
received word that Ken Atwell died January 26, 2008, at the age of
89. He had served Robinson, Mohawk, Allegheny, and USAir for
some
33 years.
|
A Robinson Airlines Beech 18 over
Cornell
University
A close-up of the Robinson Airlines
Beech 18
A Robinson Airlines DC3 at the
Tri-Cities Airport
A Robinson Airlines DC3 Crash
More Robinson Inaugural Flight Pictures
Mohawk Airlines' Sikorsky
More Recent Arrivals
Russ has been hard at work finding us some really great
pictures. I had told him that I couldn't find a decent
picture of
the airplane I call "The Bamboo Bomber." It's an early Cessna
twin-engine airplane. Robinson Airlines used one in their
early
operations. Here's a
picture
of Robinson's
fleet, including a very nice picture of the Cessna, which is
the
closest "twin" to the camera.
A wonderful lady who discovered this website, emailed, and asked if we
might have a picture of her father, Charlie Wilson. He was
one of
the few black mechanics that had worked for
Robinson/Mohawk. I found pictures of 3 different black
mechanics
among those that Russ had originally provided. One of them
was
her dad! Subsequently, Russ has found another picture with
Charlie in it.
Here it is!
It's a rare occurence to find a picture of a Robinson DC3 at Syracuse,
but
here's one!
In a continuing search for Robinson/Mohawk Airlines images, I have
discovered a picture of a group
of Robinson/Mohawk employees in Ithaca who founded the EHFC flying club
at the Ithaca Airport.
Here's the picture of the
Robinson/Mohawk
employees.
Gary Schenauer is a Mohawk
Airlines
enthusiast, who as a 13 or 14-year-old, back in the early 1960s, had
the occasion to take his 8mm movie camera to the Buffalo Airport and
try to shoot some snippets of Mohawk airplanes of the
ramp.
He writes, “
I recently
discovered
some very old 8mm films in a long-buried cardboard box. Not
having a projector, I couldn't watch them, but noticing that there was
a yellow slip of paper that read "Buffalo Airport" with the
films,
I took them in and had them transferred to DVD. The first reel has been
returned. I had already suspected it would be almost
unviewable,
and for the most part, it is. I knew nothing about taking
movies
when I was 13 and 14 (1963 -64), so the results even back then had been
pretty poor. The quality didn't improve after laying around
for
40+ years. But, in among the faded and scratch-filled
segments,
there are a few short segments that are still clear enough to make them
worth watching. And, amazingly, those few segments feature
... a Mohawk BAC-111 ("New York"), a Mohawk
stewardess
smiling and waving to the teenaged boy with the movie camera, and a
Mohawk Convair taxiing to the gate.” Here’s
a video of
Gary’s movie segments from 40+ years ago.
According to the Robinson/Mohawk
Airlines Seniority List, Steve Gondek was Number 4, employed by
Robinson Airlines even before they made their inaugural flight.
We were fortunate enough recently to hear from Steve Gondek's
daughter, Paula Byrd, who told us about a Mohawk Ad with her father's
picture in it. She was kind enough to send us an image of the ad,
so here it is:
I'm still looking for nice clear images of Robinson or
Mohawk Airlines planes, personnel, or snapshots that
you may have (even negatives). Email me if you
have something you think would be good
on this site.
Email Larry Myers
