The First Good Flying Day of the Year

On Long Island, where I go to go to work, there is a little grass airport that is the last publicly owned grass runway on the island. This, in an area that was truly the cradle of aviation in the United States. There were airports every few miles on Long Island in the early years of the 20th century and a number of aircraft manufacturers were headquartered there. Companies like Grumman, Republic, Seversky, Bird, Vought, Fairchild and others employed thousands of workers in the aerospace industry; Lindbergh launched his trans-Atlantic flight from Roosevelt Field, now the site of a shopping mall. The remains of Mitchell Field can still be seen around a sports colisseum. There are other sites, some with broad historical value, others with a more local impact, that are scattered along the length and breadth of the island, but the last of the old time airports to survive is where I like to spend my spare time.

Bayport Aerodrome is known to aviators as 23N - that's the designation given it by New York state and the FAA. There are actually 2 runways side by side, running north-south. The Town of Islip owns the airport and alternates runways each year to minimize wear and tear on the grass surface. There is a Flight Instructor at the south end of the field who operates a pilot training school and a museum and preservation group that has 5 or 6 acres of hangars at the north end of the field. That's where I hang out and where I keep my Piper Cub.

Today was truly a remarkable April day. The winds were light and warm from the southwest and I was up for some flying! Bill and Steve and George and Bob and Harry were all there and pulling their airplanes out of their hangars ... The Cub is in the last stages of re-installing the engine after an overhaul over the winter, so it's not flying yet ... fortunately, Bob had an open seat so we launched along with everybody else to start the 2006 flying season. Bob gave me a couple of landings (which I was lucky enough to be proud of) and everybody had a good time.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and as an unofficial bachelor I volunteered to show some people around the airport in the afternoon ... we give semi-guided tours all the time. The airplanes are interesting and pretty much everybody who finds the way to the hangars likes what we have. It's hard to strike a balance between serious restoration work on old airplanes and giving tours but we manage.

I made the first entry on this blog almost 2 years ago - I guess the idea hadn't taken hold yet because here we are and this is only the second entry. Oh well, it's a medium without deadlines or other noxious external pressures and I'm just warming a bit more - maybe enough to share the Cub's first flight when all the parts are bolted on. In the meantime, Happy Flying and Happy Landings!