Help us save Andover-Aeroflex!

Andover-Aeroflex Airport (0N7) in northern New Jersey faces imminent closure after the State of New Jersey, which owns the land on which the airport sits, issued notices to hangar tenants ordering them to vacate within months. The state's rationale centers on years of deferred maintenance to the hangar structures, which officials have determined warrant complete demolition rather than repair. While tie-down access may persist temporarily, the stated broader intent is to eliminate the airport entirely. The facility features a paved runway of just under 2,000 feet alongside a parallel grass strip, with a lake situated at both runway ends — a configuration that creates demanding but highly educational operating conditions. The airport sits within a state park in Sussex County, placing it squarely in the tension between recreational land use and aviation infrastructure that has claimed numerous small airports across the Northeast over the past two decades.

The threatened closure carries outsized consequences for the tailwheel training community in particular. Andover Flight, headquartered at the airport, has operated for more than 40 years under the foundational instruction of Damian DelGaizo, whose reputation for taildragger and ski-flying instruction is recognized nationally. The school is now led by Justine Pasniewski, a former student of DelGaizo's, and continues to attract pilots from across the country seeking tailwheel endorsements and advanced stick-and-rudder proficiency. The loss of the airport would terminate the school entirely, eliminating a rare institutional repository of traditional stick-and-rudder technique at a time when the broader pilot training ecosystem is already stretched thin. For working pilots seeking tailwheel currency — increasingly required by operators of legacy piston and turboprop equipment — the closure would remove one of the most reputable training venues in the region.

The Aeroflex situation reflects a wider pattern of state-owned or municipally-owned airport properties being deprioritized in favor of parkland preservation or budget reduction. Across the Northeast, small general aviation airports have faced closure pressure from land-use conflicts, environmental concerns, and the high cost of infrastructure upkeep, particularly where ownership rests with governmental entities that receive no significant aeronautical revenue. The FAA's general aviation airport infrastructure program provides some protection to airports that accept federal funding, but airports operating on state land without federal grant obligationscan face closure without the procedural safeguards that apply to federally obligated facilities. Aeroflex's situation — a charming, operationally challenging airport embedded in a state park with no commercial traffic — makes it particularly vulnerable to bureaucratic indifference.

Pilots and aviation operators in New Jersey and across the Northeast who value access to short-field environments, tailwheel training venues, and historic aviation infrastructure have a narrow window to influence the outcome through direct engagement with state and county officials. The article's author identifies Governor Mikie Sherrill, NJ Senate President Nicholas Scutari, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, and the representatives of the 24th Legislative District — which encompasses Sussex County — as the key decision-makers. The Sussex County Board of County Commissioners is also a point of contact given the airport's local jurisdictional significance. For pilots who have trained at Aeroflex, fly the Northeast corridor, or simply recognize the irreplaceable value of airports like it, the advocacy window is short and the stakes are the permanent loss of a training environment and cultural institution that took generations to build and cannot be reconstructed once the hangars are gone.