A recent visit to Brookhaven Calabro airport, hidden behind a forest of trees and private houses and accessible from local Dawn Drive, on a rough day in late March whose steel wool sky was so low that it almost scratched you, revealing what it was, but not necessarily what it could be.
The ramp near Mid-Island Air Service was littered with mostly single-engine types of aircraft, punctuated by an occasional twin, and the almost unexpected burst of a propeller isolated from a Cirrus SR-20 on this day of marginally flight rules (VFR) broken the silence like a hammer hitting a glass plate.
The blond brick structure at the north end of the field, the proud class and training monolith of the Dowling College Aviation Education Center, remained frozen in time, promising a past that had failed to offer the future of the airport.
The only low-level concrete block terminal, managed by a single monitor of the structure's common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), housed the equally closed dining room, the core, to a degree, of any general aviation airport , as it provided local and cross-country ski pilots a destination and purpose, and testified to numerous duets of pilot-instructors who over the years have discussed the techniques of handling planes on top of the New York sectional maps that double as tablecloths.
A glance into the rectangular room, showing a "Maintenance Shop" sign, revealed his former raison d'être, circular sports stools, a lunch counter, a slicer for meats and a rusty coffee pot. A recent investigation has indicated interest and its resurrection as a restaurant. Perhaps he also indicated his proposed future.
The 795-acre, double-lane, towerless airport for public use, one mile north of the business district of Shirley, east Long Island, Suffolk County, was owned by the city of Brookhaven.
Originally designated the Mastic Flight Strip, it was built at the end of the Second World War, in 1944, on 325 acres to provide logistical support to the Air Force of the American Army, after which its title was transferred to New York State and eventually the Brookhaven Town division of General Aviation in 1961, current owner. Given the current moniker "Calabro", it was named after Dr. Frank Calabro, who was instrumental in its development, but who, together with his wife Ruth, met their untimely demise in a plane crash three decades later.
The construction and expansion produced a growing harvest of hangars, shops, operators of fixed bases (FBO), the current terminal and a second concrete runway to integrate the first in 1963.
Those, including runway 6-24 of 4-00 feet and runway 15-33 of 4,255 feet, are both paved and illuminated, but the latter has an instrumental landing system (ILS), equipped and managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
$ 1.5 million out of the collective $ 5 million granted by the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT), most of which went to nearby Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, facilitated recent headlight and taxi lighting system replacements .
"We need to keep runways, lights, structures and navigation aids," according to Marten W. Haley, commissioner of general services for the city of Brookhaven, which includes the airport itself. "Everything has a limited life."
Various airport fixed base operators and other tenants include Brookfield Aviation, Mid-Island Air Service, Northeast Air Park, Ed's Aircraft Refinishing, Long Island Soaring Association, Island Aerial Air (for banner towing), NAASCO Northeast Corporation ( performing on air and helicopter repair and overhaul) and Sky Dive South Shore.
The Dowling College School of Aviation, once the cornerstone of the airport, but closed when the University of Oakdale declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in 2016, had offered degrees in Aerospace Technology and Aviation Management and attended the Collegiate of FAA Air Traffic Control Training Initiative. A fleet of private pilot aircraft and flight simulators Fiasca had allowed his students to obtain private, instrumental, multimotor, instructor (CFI) and commercial evaluations.
Although the field primarily involved general aviation flight activities, there have been a handful of other events throughout its history.
As a new base for the former 44-passenger Swissair Convair CV-440 Metropolitans operated by Cosmopolitan Airlines from Farmingdale Republic airport and its self-proclaimed Cosmopolitan Sky Center after being moved here, for example, along with an excuse of other types, they offered junkets to Bader camp in Atlantic City.
The Grand Old Airshow, which was held in 2006 and 2007, was created to transport spectators to earlier times, biplane and WWII and to showcase Long Island aviation.
Having attracted visitors through the flyers and his website, he had pushed them to "join us this year as we go back in time to celebrate the Golden Age of Long Island Aviation", a time when "the biplanes graced the skies decades ago". He continued his presentation by offering the experience of "past days of aviation, such as dog fights from WWI, open cabin biplanes, WWII fighters and of course the famous Geico Skytypers, flying through the blue skies of Long Island. "
The shows themselves featured antique vehicles and static aircraft displays, the latter included TBM Avengers, Fokker Dr-1s, Nieuports and Messerschmitt Me-109s, while aerobatics included comic maneuvers performed on Piper J-3 Cubs by "randomly chosen" audience member Carl Spackle; Delsey dives borrowed from the airfield of the ancient Rhine and bursts of hot air balloons targeted by the Sprinters of the Great Lakes, the 16B fleet and the Stearman PT-17; speed races between motorcycles linked to the track and PT-17 dispersed in the air; aerobatics with SF-260; and skywriting of Sukhoi 29s.
A Sikorsky UH-34D Sea Horse Marine helicopter, used for rescue in combat in Vietnam, during the Cuban missile crisis and by NASA during the Mercury Project astronaut recovery program, had demonstrated search and rescue procedures.
Long Island Air Force and training flight were also well represented. The shows featured the Byrd, N3N, Fleet Model 16B and N2S Stearman aircraft of the Bayport Aerodrome Society; Warbirds P-40 Warhawks and P-51 Mustangs on Long Island; Corsairs F4U of the American Airpower Museum; and North American SNJ-2s from Geico Skytypers based at the airport of the Republic.
Vintage vehicle and aircraft races are available. Spectators brought their garden chairs and lined them up near the active catwalk between period clothes and speeches given by Tuskegee Airmen. The trucks under concession sold everything from hot dogs to ice cream, to souvenirs and to numerous schools and associations related to aviation.
The Grand Old Airshow, which was held during two consecutive falls, was a one-day open-air glimpse, single visit, to the sky, where the history of the multi-faceted aviation of Long Island was written and where it was recreated.
2008 was also offered a non-flying homage to Vinny Nasta. Riverhead High School art teacher who hails from the River Wading, lost his life at age 47 when playing Nieuport 24 was flying into the Old Rhine Airfield in the nose after colliding with another fake Fokker Dr.1 fight Triplane, on August 17th of that year.
Former Dowling College Air Force Dean Tom Daley, director of the Rhinebeck Airfield's old air show and creator of the Brookhaven Grand Old Airshow, was forced to stop what had become an increasingly popular autumn event.
"There was some local opposition to the show," he said, "and everyone gave their hand. I was asked to give an x number of dollars for security, an x number for emergency medical attendance. I couldn't more do it "I could not organize an air show and meet expenses with expectations like that."
Today, the 217 aircraft at Brookhaven Calabro Airport, 92 percent of which are single engine, five percent multiple engine and three percent gliders, provide the bulk of its business. For the 12-month period ending March 25, 2005, there were 135,100 annual aircraft movements, or an average of 370 per day, and 99% of them belonged to the general aviation category, allowing pilot students to pursue licenses and practice weekdays the touch-and-go is in an airport without a tower.
Building on this aviation segment is its future.
