Lincoln Park Airport

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.

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

Reply to @blueskyes: Enjoyed reading about your Ed Gorski experiences ---I agree, good man! I can see him again in the round concrete office saying "---hmm don't have enough money eh? --- ok build an airport symbol with a wind sock out there near the runway and we'll start teaching you to fly". That was in 1946 and I was back from 23 missions as flight engineer on B-24's in the South Pacific. Ed's CFI Steve Bannister #33659 sat in the front of the Piper Cub puffing a cigar (no, really; blew smoke back over his shoulder in my face!) and we were off for "Familiarization, Climb, Glide, Turns, Coordinations" for 30 minutes. It's all right here in my log book that your fine write-up made me dig out -- Cub J3 -- 27056-- Cont 65 --- wonder if they are still renting it out. After a later solo it was Ed that called me down in what you accurately described as a 'gruff' manner for flying over with rpm way too high! On a later solo the engine died on final in one of his Cubs --- the telephone lines across the approach (since taken down) raised a question Bannister had not discussed with me --- over the wires or under the wires? --- I picked over and the wheels cleared by inches --- hmmm strange how the wheels get closer to those wires as the years go by. Ed had worked with Amelia Earhardt at Teterboro and did big things in WWII according to a book on his life --- which is somewhere around the house here --- oh well. Thanks for your memory stimulating words blueskyes.

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.

My primary flight training back in 1969-71 was out of LGA. The school was the long extinct La Guardia Flying Service. LGA being what it is meant we flew elsewhere for practicing t&g's and full stop landings. Lincoln Park was probably my favorite airport since I could get an idea of what making a carrier landing was like. If I remember correctly, the runway was gravel in those days and much shorter. Can anyone confirm this? Dennis Harper

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

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.

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.