Flyboy From Kissimmee Knows Sky Is The Limit For Dreams............July 4, 1990|By Jovida Fletcher of The Sentinel Staff As far as anyone knows, Clay Steffee is the only civilian who borrowed a twin-engine P70A airplane from the Kissimmee Air Base during World War II and took his wife for a ride. The year was 1943. Steffee said he and his wife, Nina, were at a dance when he and a military officer started discussing flying. During the course of the evening Steffee was invited out to the base to fly a plane. I called his bluff and he called my bluff and he accompanied my wife and myself out to the base and I took them for a ride, Steffee said. During the early days of the war, Steffee said, the Kissimmee airport had been closed to all air traffic and had undergone major changes. Known as Kissimmee Air Base, it was a satellite of the Pine Castle Air Base. Barracks were built to accommodate U.S. Army personnel, and hangars and runways were prepared for use by the military. Steffee, 73, said there was a regular squadron of P70As at the air base. And the plane he recalls flying that night was built for the French and was painted black. Steffee taught himself to fly. I just got in most airplanes and flew them. I could fly any single engine they had. Sometime we would get two hours training. His first solo flight was in Ocala, he remembers. The owner of the plane told me to take it up. I asked him to ride once with me, which he did. Then I flew it. I was around 20 years old. Ocala at that time had one of the longest runways in the United States. It was 3,700 feet long while the state average then was 2,500 feet. Recalling his young years in Osceola County, Steffee said there were many places to land a plane. You could land on the lakeshore, in pastures and there was a place east of Neptune Road. Steffee said that in the late 1920s and early 30s, the aviation division of the state Department of Transportation surveyed Florida for airport sites with the idea of expansion. I flew off the Kissimmee airport when it had a sod field with boundary markers and a swinging beacon. I was flying a 40 horsepower Piper J2. If you pushed it, it would cruise around 70 mph. After the war, Steffee recalls, the title to the airport was turned over to the city. But aviation died in the area, and the airport was almost abandoned, he said. There was a time when one Piper Cub was the only plane there. It was not until the early 1950s that business started picking up. In 1937 Steffee went to Pennsylvania, where he worked for the Piper Aircraft Co. He said that firm built 700 airplanes the last six months of that year. That was the same year Steffee got his private pilots license.Over the next 50 years, Steffee flew 50 to 60 airplanes of various types. But his favorite was the Spitfire, he said. It looked and flew like a plane was supposed to look and fly. Everybody liked it. It was probably the top all-around general purpose fighter airplane used in the war. In early 1941 I heard about a job in England where you could fly Spitfires. Ten days later I was in England. I was delayed in Montreal because the plane that was going to transport me to England was out searching for the Bismarck, a German battleship. When the plane returned, we were taken to Scotland. That plane was shot down a week later in Africa. Steffee was a civilian ferry pilot for Englands Air Transport Service Auxiliary during World War II. He also delivered planes to various parts of South America. I made 80 flights across the English Channel with freight and supplies. I flew the better part of four years and never saw a German airplane and only heard anti-aircraft gunfire in the distance. Following the war, Steffee flew materials and supplies to a gold mine in French Guyana and also flew the gold out from the mines. Steffee has had a couple of minor accidents over the years. I nosed a plane in the mud and hit a fence or two and had two wheels come off on takeoff. Later, when I was a flight instructor, I saved a couple of student fliers lives. Sometimes they would misunderstand what I said and I would have to take over the controls. Steffee said he hasnt flown in four years. I guess I miss it more or less. If I wanted to fly today, I would have to get a physical and drop 30 pounds. But flying is no fun anymore. There are too many rules and regulations. Clay R Steffee was a member of the Steffee family. Clay was born on October 21, 1916. Clay died on April 4, 2001 at 84 years old.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 16:40:49 +0000
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