Aviation View | April 2021

47 AVIATION VIEW APRIL 2021 Allen Cou BUSINESS AS USUAL T he Allen County Airport is a public use airport located five miles southeast of the central business district of Lima, Ohio. The area’s first foray into aviation occurred back on July 28, 1911 at the former Allen County Fairgrounds – now the site of Lima Memorial Hospital – when pilot Calbraith Perry Rodgers, a pupil of Orville Wright, took flight in a Model-B Wright Biplane with a 35-horsepower engine. Rodgers made three flights that day; staying low so that persons outside the grounds could not get a good look at the event without paying 50 cents for admission. Today, everyone at Allen County Airport is working harder than ever before. Business View Magazine recently contacted Airport Manager Josh Tattrie for updates on the airport facility and a look at what the future holds. The following is a compilation of his candid insights. According to Tattrie: “2020 presented a unique year of challenges and hurdles to overcome. Obviously, the COVID-19 virus has impacted every facet of our daily lives. I was worried this would be another 9/11 type of workplace / environment all over again (a ghost town). The public was scared and frightened, but aviation adapted quickly, and those fears soon departed. It was very quiet out here in February & March of 2020. We were nervous at first, but today, it’s business as usual at the Allen County Airport.