Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Essex County Airport, widely known as Caldwell Airport, is a busy general-aviation reliever field in Fairfield Township, New Jersey, just north of Caldwell and about 20 miles west of Manhattan. It sits beneath the floor of New York's Class B airspace and offers a towered Class D environment with two crossing runways, making it a popular training and touring base for pilots in the New York area. The field carries a long history dating back to the late 1920s and gained wider public attention in 1999 as the departure point for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s final flight.
Essex County Airport (KCDW), informally known as Caldwell Airport, is a public-use general aviation airport owned and operated by the Essex County Improvement Authority. It lies in Fairfield Township, Essex County, New Jersey, and has long served as a training and business-aviation base for the northern New Jersey and New York City area. The airport is designated by the FAA as a reliever airport for the congested New York/New Jersey region, and its proximity to Manhattan and Teterboro makes it a convenient and interesting destination for visiting simulator pilots.
KCDW is a towered Class D aerodrome located beneath the 3,000 foot floor of New York's Class B airspace, roughly 20 miles west of New York City and about 10 miles west of Teterboro Airport. The field is situated about 2 nautical miles north of the Caldwell town centre, entirely within Fairfield Township. Pilots should be alert to traffic from the Morristown ILS and GPS Runway 23 approaches, which transits the Essex County Class D airspace about two miles west of the airport while descending through 2,000 feet MSL.
Essex County Airport has two paved runways. Runway 04/22 is hard-surfaced and lit, with the 04 threshold giving 4,176 feet available and the 22 threshold giving 4,417 feet available; runway 22 is equipped with an ILS. Runway 10/28 is also hard-surfaced and lit, with 3,533 feet available from runway 10 and 2,893 feet available from runway 28. Field elevation is 171 feet.
The airport operates as Caldwell Tower, with tower and CTAF both on 119.8 MHz. Ground control is on 121.9 MHz, clearance delivery on 121.1 MHz, and ATIS is broadcast on 135.5 MHz. New York Approach works arrivals on 127.6 MHz and New York Departure handles outbound traffic on 119.2 MHz. UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. Runway 22 is served by an ILS, and GPS instrument approaches are also published for the field.
Traffic pattern altitude is 1,027 feet AGL for light aircraft and 1,527 feet AGL for large and turbojet aircraft. Non-standard traffic patterns for runway 04 are prohibited because of a noise-sensitive area to the southwest of the airport. When the control tower is closed, the PAPI for runway 22 and the runway 04/22 high-intensity and runway 10/28 medium-intensity lighting operate continuously, preset to low intensity; pilots can increase lighting intensity and activate the runway end identifier lights on runways 04 and 22 using the CTAF frequency. The control tower operates from 0700 to 2300 hours local.
The airport lies about 2 nautical miles north of the built-up centre of Caldwell, making the town itself a useful reference when inbound from the south. Its position under New York's Class B shelf and close to the Morristown approach corridor to the west means pilots should also use Teterboro, roughly 10 miles to the east, and the general Route 23/46/80/280/287 highway network in the vicinity as broader orientation points when planning a VFR arrival.
The airport traces its origins to April 1929, when the Essex Airport Corporation was formed by Walter Marvin and six other individuals with the aim of serving nearby Montclair, New Jersey; some early references accordingly call it Marvin Airport. Ownership passed to the Essex County Improvement Authority on 5 September 1975, and the airport has since been governed by a Board of Commissioners appointed by the county executive. In 1999 the airport gained national attention when John F. Kennedy Jr., who based his private aircraft there, crashed hours after departing on a flight to Martha's Vineyard.
Essex County Airport remains an active general aviation facility on roughly 278 acres, offering flight training, aircraft maintenance and fuel sales. It is home to flight schools such as Century Air and supports a substantial resident fleet, and it continues to function as an FAA-designated reliever airport for the busy New York/New Jersey region, with a control tower operating from 0700 to 2300 hours local.
