The Canandaigua Airport

out or bum airplane rides while my dad was flying.” For more than three decades, the McAnns provided flight lessons, rented aircraft, and hosted a flying club at their airport. “In 1980 Wally and Betty retired,” Mincer continues, “selling the airport to Paul and Susie Yarnall.” The Yarnall’s were at the forefront of the ultra-light boom. They used the Airport as home base to design, sell, and fly ultra-light aircraft. Meanwhile, fixed wing aircraft continued to be based at the Airport. One of those planes belonged to the local banker, George Hamlin. Paul and George struck up a friendship, and, together, they crafted a vision to further develop the Airport to better serve the area’s economic and aeronautical needs. “However, acquiring federal and state funding to expand the Airport required a public sponsor,” Mincer explains. “At the time, the county was not interested in developing the Airport. Not willing to give up, Yarnall and Hamlin approached the Industrial Development Agency. The two men THE CANANDA IGUA A I RPORT