Lincoln Park Airport (N07)

Lincoln Park and folks fondly remembered

🔗 Tue, 13 Mar 2012
— Anonymous Flyer at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

Knew Bill Fedishen (great guy, classic unforgettable character, who was a great foil for Ed. The two were classics of aviation.) Equally unforgetable was Ed Gorski who took my mom and older brother up in a JN-4 Jenny (or maybe a Waco?) in the old days. My first light plane ride, Cessna 172 (1962), first lesson (1964) through license (1969) being instructed by: Bill, Tony Farell (who, IIRC, did my license pre-check ride) and young Dave Brody (with whom did my last dual-cross country and my first & only spin). From Lincoln Park to 23 years in Naval Aviation.

Ed Gorski

🔗 Mon, 05 Apr 2010
— Anonymous Flyer at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

Wow, cant believe I found this sight. I worked for Ed in the early 70's > I did everything from sweep the runway, to washing his car and loved every minute of it. Instructors were great. Arnold Kufta, Tony Farrel, Bill Reda, Bill Feddishon, Daine Sutton, and Chuck Smith. What a great bunch of guys. And their was Lucifer the cat. He used to catch mice in the field and bring them for Ed. Ed loved that damn cat !! Many good memories with Wayne W. hangin in the commander, breaking into the furnace room and buying those bottles of coke, and lets not forget driving the go carts down the runway on lousy weather days. Would love to hear info on any of them guy

Former student at Lincoln Park Airport

🔗 Tue, 14 Jul 2009
— Anonymous Flyer at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

This is the first time I have seen this website, and I am pleased to see the response from others about the airport.

Back in 1962 on my sixteenth birthday my grandfather paid for my first lesson.

The plane was a Piper PA-11, tail number 4549M. The instructor was H.T. Buckley.

The lesson was only thirty minutes but the memory lasted a lifetime. That day I was introduced to Ed Gorski and his wife, and other pilots were in the office on that day. After that first flight, I spent every dollar I earned going back for more, for I could not get enough of this new experience which completely changed my life. I remember after I had soloed once or twice Ed would ride in the back seat for the first couple of landings, to make sure I was able to handle the cross wind conditions, he always seemed to have a cigar in his mouth and yelling orders from the back seat about what I was doing wrong. When I fly today I can still hear his voice and it brings back back fond memories.

There is a lot more that I would l like to share about my experiences at the Lincoln Park airport but the website does not allow the space it would require. I thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences.

Robert J. Ruck sales@class1tool.com

Ride with Ed in 1954 (Tri_Pacer)

🔗 Tue, 16 Jun 2009
— Anonymous Flyer at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

I'll keep it short, me and friend Garry Flipped a coin for the right seat on a ride, garry won and as we were flying gracious Ed asked if he knew something about flying, He said yes and Ed said take over and Garry gripped the control wheel then Ed asked for a turn and Garry quickly performed a split-S (which would have made an SBD pilot envious) and had me viewing the Totowa Drive-In parking lot thru the windscreen. Ed calmly cut the throttle and very gently recovered to straight and level. Cigar smoking Ed never lost it and just verbally said thats not how you do it.

Just a little 50s aviation trivia involving some past events. Garry went on to get his license many years later, and a 172.

Rich S.

Harrowing And Fond Memories

🔗 Wed, 19 Nov 2008
— @RedOcktober at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

my flight instruction took place at BeechEast over at TEB back in the 80's... the instructors there (some of best people on earth) seemed to enjoy bringing the cocky students (like myself) over to Lincoln Park for a lil bit of humility training (i mean, after all, we did pay for it, didn't we)... maybe it was that look of shock and fear in our eyes when we first sighted the runway... maybe they took some sadistic pleasure in casually announcing, 'ok there's the runway, go ahead and land', and then sitting back and gauging our reaction, knowing full well that all any person of rational sensibilities could see was this ribbon of what looked like half a roadway with numbers on the ends... surely that couldn't be the runway that he was asking me to land on... it was just too thin to be a runway for real airplanes...

or maybe it was the knowledge that after landing at Lincoln Park once or twice, the new, soon to be pilot would be confident of his or her abilities to take their charge into anything that the FAA allowed to be called an airport... regardless of the width of its runways... maybe these flight instuctors knew a thing or two... or three...

so nowadays... whenever i see tv news replays of those airliners making emergency landings... and the pilot puts it down right on the centerline... i can rest assured that that pilot probably landed at Licoln Park at least once during his/her early flying days...

i drove out to Lincoln Park once after that... i just had to get a feel for what looked like one of those idyllic small local airports... from a different perspective... i wasn't dissapointed...

is the lil viewing gallery at the north end of the field still there...

--Mike Hense

Lincoln Park

🔗 Fri, 08 Aug 2008
— @Wayne at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

I worked at LP from 1975-1980. Ed always called me "junior". I hated it then but over the years it was fitting. Ed was pretty old then, but he did not lack anything. He was sharp as a tack and if he missed anything Jule would let him know so.

I guess I went to work for him after he had repossed the airport from the Eastern group. I was for the most part an aircraft fueler after school and on weekends, but I wound up doing so much more. Moving planes, cutting grass, cleaning the office and assisting the mechanic when needed. And hung up a lot of what I know now are to be historical pictures in the office.

Ed always asked, every pay day, "do you want half in pay and half in flight time"? I kick my self in the butt today. I could have been trained to fly by the same guy that helped Amelia Earhart fly the Atlantic, wow Ed! And that also would have included instruction by Tony Farrell.

But I at the time liked fast cars and the girls that came with it. I think I kept Ed and the other guys happy with all the teenage girls that showed up to watch me work. But Ed would always come out, "junior we need to get doc's plane out" or something. Meaning she had to go.

Ed loved the airport and always wanted it looking its best. He also gave a lot back, never missing the chance to buy me a lunch at the Pequannock sandwich shop. He kept me stuffed with salt tabs in the summer also. And when the day was slow I would go up to his house and mow the lawn.

Jules and Ed had a nice, cozy log cabin up in the hills. The road getting there was windy and tight. If you think flying in a plane with Ed was fun, you needed to ride in a car on the way to his house. The tree limbs would fly in the open window and slap you in the face if you let it. He was a daredevil in my book.

The first flight I had in an airplane was in his J-3 Cub. I never knew you could look over your shoulder at the runway on final approach. That's how Ed did it all the time! And just prior to the wheel hitting the ground he would snap the tail around and bam you were rolling down the runway.

He came out of the office one day to see me propping an aircraft. I guess I was lucky that the plane fired up and I wasn't injured. But Ed made sure that I got some instruction before doing it again. The first instruction was a lot of ear chewing. But that's how he was, you didn't do it unless you were going to do it right.

We had one guy, Bernie. He owned a Mooney, and every time he flew it was "swift". He was German and the plane was fast. Ed would wait for him to come in for a landing and then the chase was on. Bernie would taxi way to fast for Ed's liking and he would let him know it. Better yet almost every landing Bernie would ding his prop after porposing down the runway, Ed would stop him and say he couldn't fly till it was fixed.

We had only one crash during the time I worked there. The radio shops owner had a bell 47 helicopter, that crashed just short of me while I was cutting the grass. He took off and pulled up too soon causing the clutch to go. He attempted a auto rotation but hit tail first, which caused the chopper to spin and land on its side.

Ed and Jules have since gone and I miss those hot New Jersey days at the airport. I'm glad to see that they have gone down in the history of aviation in NJ, and that they left us with so much. May LP airport continue to prosper.

For me too, only further back in time

🔗 Tue, 31 Jul 2007
— Anonymous Flyer at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

Remember riding my bike to LP Airport in 1946. Too young to drive, I had a wad of money earned during the week as an auto mechanic (yes I was doing engine overhauls at that age and being paid the magnificent sum of something like $20.00 a week during summer vacation ).

My thought was to take a ride. When I asked the pilot signing off someone's log book how old you had to be to take lessons I was rocked to my ACE Sneakers when he said "no age limit". "You mean I could take a lesson?" the answer yes, brought the next logical question, "How much?" Think it was something like $14.00 an hour, maybe a half hour, that's what I wound up buying anyway.

"Hold on though" says the FI, "you can't just hop in and start flying" "You have to know all about aeroplanes"

"Oh, I do!" (I spent my nights and weekends building balsa models)

"OK" he smiled "Go over to that yellow plane over there (a J-3) and I'll be over to see what you know"

I passed the test so my first ride in an airplane was my first lesson in piloting.

When we landed he told me I needed a logbook available from the front office. That was when I met Mr. Gorski a fine looking older man whose friendly smile never let you forget that flying was important and serious.

There was another young pilot back than a year or two older who also soloed on his 16th birthday. His name was Breeziano or something like that we all called him Breezy. We became kind of friends but kind of competitors too. He certainly built better models than me, but I think I had the edge on Stick and Rudder.

It would be wonderful if the Gorskis were still alive they were the best of an age before the `white knuckles' took over.

Where it all began

🔗 Tue, 17 Jul 2007
— @XingR at Lincoln Park Airport, United States Reply

As a boy I lived across the street from this airport and it's part of my earliest memories. I "hung out" there nearly every free moment from the time I was 6 years old or so until I left for the USAF in 1965. Got my private there in 1964. Lincoln Park is notable as the long-time business interest of Ed and Jue Gorski (see NJ Aviation Hall of Fame). Other CFI's there who helped shape my life were Johnnie Schump, Charlie Stephan, Lenny Landers, Tony Farrell and William (Wild Bill) Fedishen. Still an active and well-run little operation, close in to the NY Metro area.