DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Finney Field has to say — and friend, this one's worth the listen. It starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with a handful of people who just plain wanted to fly. Sometime in the late 1930s, aviation enthusiasts out around Plainview organized the Plainview Flying Club.
They pooled their ambitions and acquired themselves a two-seat Aeronca Chief — sixty-five horsepower under the hood — and went looking for sky. Their first site was six miles south of Plainview, but before long they moved things north of town, near a spot called Finney Switch. That little detail — Finney Switch — is going to matter.
By September of 1940, the City of Plainview and Hale County had seen enough potential to put their money where it counted. Together, they jointly purchased 320 acres right there at that site and built themselves a municipal airport. They called it Finney Field.
Now, at that exact moment in history, the world was about to ask a great deal of a little airport on the Texas High Plains. When the United States entered World War II, pilot training accelerated — and I mean swiftly. A civilian contractor named Clent Breedlove had already been working in the federal government's Civilian Pilot Training Program since 1939.
In May of 1942, Breedlove contracted to train pre-glider students right there at Finney Field. And on June 1, 1942 — just weeks later — the Plainview Pre-Glider School was activated. Its official name was a mouthful: the 4th Army Air Forces Glider Training Detachment.
The AAFGTD, if you're keeping notes. What they built out at Finney Field was no small operation. Two runways.
Twenty-three buildings — headquarters, hangars, barracks, a mess hall, a medical clinic. And if that wasn't enough real estate, there were three auxiliary airfields within nine miles of the main facility. Now here's where the story gets interesting, because what these students were being trained to do was genuinely something else.
Finney Field was what they called a primary school. Student pilots — with an instructor on board, mind you — would take off in a powered aircraft, climb up somewhere between a thousand and five thousand feet, and then... cut the engine. Full stop.
Engine power off. And then they had to steer that aircraft down and land it in what the program called dead stick mode. No engine.
Just the skill of the pilot and the pull of the earth. You practice that enough times, and you're ready for something even quieter: a glider. After a four-week course, students who made it through graduated to advanced glider training — often heading to army air fields at Dalhart up in the Texas Panhandle, Fort Sumner over in New Mexico, or Victorville out in California.
All told, 1,169 pre-glider students trained at Finney Field. Eight hundred and seventy-six of them completed the course. After the pre-glider program wrapped up, the field transitioned to a liaison pilot program and trained another 241 students on top of that.
The whole operation stayed open until April 14, 1943 — the day Clent Breedlove moved the operation down to Lamesa. After the war work was done, Ralph Brown and Claude Hutcherson converted Finney Field into a private airport, offering aerial service, private lessons, and charter flights. In time, the field became the site of Cloverlake Dairy — a pretty different kind of operation than dead-stick landings at altitude.
But here's the thing about Finney Field. It sits out there in Hale County — a modest stretch of Texas flatland — and for a handful of years it was the place where over a thousand young men learned to trust a powerless aircraft and their own hands. That's a local story, yes.
But those pilots went on to serve in a world war. Finney Field left its mark on that war, and the marker makes sure you know it. Some places earn their names the hard way.
Finney Field earned its place in history one silent, engine-off landing at a time.
What the marker says
In the late 1930s, area aviation enthusiasts organized Plainview Flying Club, acquiring a two-seat Aeronca Chief with a 65-horsepower engine. Their first site was six miles south of Plainview, later moving north of Plainview near Finney Switch. In September 1940, the City of Plainview and Hale County jointly purchased 320 acres at the site for a municipal airport facility named Finney Field. When the U.S. entered WWII, pilot training swiftly accelerated. Clent Breedlove, a civilian contractor in the federal government's Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) since 1939, contracted in May 1942 to train pre-glider students at Finney Field. Plainview Pre-Glider School (officially 4th Army Air Forces Glider Training Detachment, or AAFGTD) was activated on June 1, 1942. The facility had two runways and 23 buildings, including headquarters, hangars, barracks, mess hall and medical clinic. There were also three auxiliary airfields within nine miles. Finney Field was a primary school where student pilots, with an instructor pilot on board, flew powered aircraft to 1,000 to 5,000 feet altitude, turned off engine power, and steered and landed the aircraft in "dead stick" mode. After a four-week course, students graduated to advanced glider training, often at army air fields at Dalhart (TX), Fort Sumner (NM) or Victorville (CA). A total of 1,169 pre-glider students trained here, with 876 completing the course. Finney Field transitioned to a liaison pilot program for another 241 students, remaining open until April 14, 1943, when Breedlove moved the operation to Lamesa. Ralph Brown and Claude Hutcherson converted the field to a private airport with an aerial service, private lessons and charter flights. It was later the site of Cloverlake Dairy. Finney Field is remembered for its local contributions to aviation and its international impact in military training. (2021)