Page 3 - Flying at Zahns, continued

A J-3 Cub picking up an advertisement banner at Zahns. When I was little and went to beaches on the south shore, I sometimes wondered where the banner planes flying overhead came from. Zahns must have been at least one of those places. During the summer on weekends, this was a common sight. As best as I can recall, the banner cable was strung between two poles next to the side of the runway at about midfield. The tow planes would come in low and snatch the cable with a hook extended from the back of the plane. The planes would also later drop the banners near the same location.

The Northport stacks.
Each airport has a number of local landmarks that help pilots establish their location and navigate to the field. This was one of the more distant landmarks for Zahns, as well as for Republic. (Note -- it continues to be used now for Republic Airport.) It is located on Long Island's north shore, almost along the route from Zahns to Bridgeport, CT. The Northport stacks have a unique feature in that if you follow the line of the stacks south, you reach Zahns and Republc Airports.

The most important landmarks near Zahns were the Massapequa Mall on Sunrise Highway, and the drive in movie theater, just a little northeast of the mall. (I don't have any photos of those.) They were the prominant landmarks southwest of the field, conveniently located on the approach to the airport traffic pattern. Generally, airports have established approaches from several directions, in order to serve different traffic patterns and runways. However, at Zahns you only flew in from the southeast, over these landmarks, regardless of which runway was in use. This was to help avoid the Republic Airport traffic.

Zahns was an uncontrolled airport. Therefore, you announced your position on the UNICOM frequency, 122.8, when flying inbound over these landmarks. You wanted the pilots of other planes in the pattern to know you were there. When you similarly heard other pilots call their positions, you would know where to look out for them. This is a nice procedure that helps you merge into the traffic pattern smoothly. Nowadays, UNICOM is called the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). Amityville Flying Service monitored the UNICOM frequency, so when you made your inbound call, you could ask them which runway was in use.

A closer view of Republic Airport, just north of Zahns.
Visible is the former control tower and the approach end of runway 19.
During takeoff from runway 32.

Charles Jackson, another young pilot who I knew and who flew at Zahns, is recreating Zahns for a flight simulation program:
The Zahns Airport Project -- Re-creating Zahns Airport for the X-Plane Flight Simulator.

This is a link to the Microsoft Terraserver view of the Zahns Airport area, photographed more recently. Republic Airport is visible to the north. You can zoom out or in, or move with the controls on the window. Zahns was located just a little south of the approach end of Republic Airport's runway 32, the lower right part of the "X" in the photo map. Look down from there past the straight line that runs across, which is the Long Isand Rail Road tracks. Zahns was right below those tracks, where you now see larger buildings of an industrial park.

Paul Freeman has a website about Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields. His New York pages has information about Zahns as well as some of the other old airfields in the area. He included some information from me.