A recent visit to Brookhaven Calabro Airport, hidden behind a forest of trees and private houses and accessible by local Dawn Drive, in a damp, late March, whose sky from steel wool was so low that it almost scratched you, showed that it was, but not necessarily, what could be.
The ramp near the Mid-Island Air Service was littered with mostly single-engine aircraft, interspersed with a random twin, and the almost unexpected spraying of an isolated propeller from the Cirrus SR-20 on this minimally visual flight mode (VFR) cracked like a hammer hitting the glass.
The blond brick structure at the northern end of the field, once a classroom and training monolith of the Dowling College Aviation Education Center, froze in time, promising a past that the airport could not deliver. future.
A single, low-level terminal of the cement block, complete with one common object frequency advisory frequency monitor (CTAF), placed a uniformly closed lanchonetta, the core, to some extent, of any general aviation airport, since these were pilots of local and inter-country countries of destination and indicated about the many student pilot instructors who have been discussing methods for handling aircraft for many years on paper New York sectional diagrams, doubling as tablecloths.
A glance at the rectangular room on which the “Maintenance Shop” mark was affixed showed his former raison d & # 39; être, sports circular stools, breakfast table, cold cutter and rust coffee maker. A recent query showed interest and its resurrection as an eatery. Sometimes he also pointed to his future.
The unauthorized general aviation airport has a total area of 795 acres, a total area of 795 acres, one mile north of the Shirley business district on east Long Island, Suffolk County, belonged to the city of Brookhaven.
It was originally designated Mast Flight Strip, it was built at the end of the Second World War in 1944 on 325 acres to provide logistical support to the US Air Corps, after which its name was transferred to the state of New York and very clearly Brookhaven Town and # 39; s Department of General Aviation in 1961, the current owner. Given his current nickname Calabro, he was named after Dr. Frank Calabro, who played an important role in his development, but who, along with his wife Ruth, met his untimely demise in a plane crash three decades later.
Construction and expansion led to an increase in the yield of hangars, shops, fixed base operators (FBOs), a real terminal and a second concrete runway to supplement the first in 1963.
These, including 4 200-foot runways 6-24 and 4 255-foot runways 15-33, are paved and lighted, but the latter is equipped with an instrument landing system (ILS) equipped and supported by the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA).
1.5 million dollars US collective $ 5 million. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) grants, most of which were for the nearest MacArthur Airport on Long Island in Islipi, helped replace the lighting system with a beacon and taxiway.
“We need to maintain runways, lights, structures, and navigation aids,” says Marten W. Haley, Commissioner for General Services of Brookhaven Town, which includes the airport itself. "Everything has a finite life."
Several permanent base airport operators and other tenants include Brookfield Aviation, Mid-Island Air Service, Northeast Air Park, Ed Air Refishing, Long Island Saring Association, Island Airial Air (for towing banners) NAASCO Northeast Corporation (which repairs and overhauls repair of airplanes and helicopters) and Sky Dive South Shore.
The Aviation School at Dowling College, once the cornerstone of the airport, but closed when Oakdale University itself declared bankrupt and ceased operations in 2016, offered a bachelor's degree in aerospace technology and Aviation Administration, and also participated in The FAA Aviation Monitoring Training Initiative. The fleet of private pilot planes and flight simulators Fiasca allowed their students to earn private, instrumental, multi-engined, instructor (CFI) and commercial factors.
Despite the fact that the field mainly entailed aviation flights, there were several other events in its history.
As a new base for the former 44-passenger Swissair Convair CV-440 Metropolitans, which was operated by Cosmopolitan Airlines from the Republican Airport Farmingdale and its self-proclaimed Cosmopolitan Center Scala after they were transferred here, for example, they, along with a small number of other types, offered junkets for the Atlantic City Bader Field.
The grandiose old air show, which was held in 2006 and 2007, was created to transmit to viewers of earlier, biplane and world eras, and to showcase Long Island aviation.
Attracting visitors through flyers and his website, he urged them to “join us this year when we return in time to celebrate the Golden Age of Long Island Aviation, a time when biplanes decorated the sky decades ago. "He continued his work by offering the experience of" the past days of aviation, like fighting battles of the First World War, biplanes of an open gig, fighters of the Second World War and, of course, the famous Geico Skytypers, taking off over the blue island of Long Island sky. "
The indicators had distinctive vehicles and static displays of aircraft, the latter covered the TBM Avengers, Fokker Dr-1s, Nieuports and Messerschmitt Me-109s, while the air stunts included comedy maneuvers performed by Piper J-3 Cubs “randomly selected”, audience member Carl Spackle; The old Rheinbeck airfields borrowed by the Delsi Balloon dives and bursts, designed for Speedsters Great Lakes, Fleet 16Bs and PT-17 Stearmans; speed races between runway-related motorcycles and onboard, low-speed PT-17; aerobatics SF-260; and the skyscrapers of Sukhoi 29s.
The Sikorsky UH-34D Sea Horse naval helicopter, used for combat rescue in Vietnam, during the Cuban missile crisis and NASA during the restoration program of the Project Mercury astronaut, demonstrated search and rescue procedures.
Also well represented were aircraft in Long Island as well as floating aircraft. The exhibitions featured Byrd, N3N, Fleet Model 16B and N2S Stearman from the Byport Airfield Society; P-40 Warhawks and P-51 Mustangs from Warbirds over Long Island; F4U Corsairs from the American Museum of Aviation; and North American SNJ-2 from Geico Skytypers Government Airport.
Vintage cars and airplanes were available. The spectators bought their own lawn chairs and lined them up next to the active airstrip amid the clothing and performances given by the Tuskegee pilots. Concession trucks sold everything from hot dogs to ice cream and souvenirs, and numerous schools and associations associated with aviation created booths.
The great old air show, held over two consecutive falls, was a one-day one-day, open look at the sky, where Long Island’s multifaceted aviation history was written and recreated.
In 2008, a non-flying tribute to Vinnie Nastya was also offered. Highhead art teacher at Riverdhd, who hails from the Wading River, lost his life at 47 when he replied to the Nieuport 24 reproduction on the rhinoceros of the Old Rhinebeck airfield in the forest after his false fight with another replica of Fokker Dr.1 Triplane, August 17 of the year.
Dr. Tom Daley, the former dean of the aviation faculty of Dowling, director of the Old Reinbek aerodrome air show and creator of the Great Old Airshow at Brookhaven, was forced to stop what had become an increasingly popular autumn event.
“There was some local opposition to the show,” he said, “and everyone put out their hand. I needed to give x-number of dollars for security, x-number for emergency medical presence. air shows and cover expenses with such expectations. ”
Currently, the Brookhane Calabro type aircraft has 217 aircraft on board, 92 percent of which are single-engine, five percent of which are multi-engined and three percent of which are gliders, provide most of their activities. For the 12-month period ending March 25, 2005, there were 135,100 annual air traffic, or an average of 370 per day, and 99 percent of them belong to the general aviation category, which allows student pilots to carry out licenses and practice a weekday touch and passage on a non-elevated airfield.
The emergence of this segment of aviation is its future.
