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Brookhaven Calabro Airport is a town-owned general aviation field in Shirley, New York, on the south shore of Long Island, built as a wartime flight strip and now home to a busy mix of private and training traffic. Its two hard-surfaced runways, one with an ILS, and its proximity to New York Approach control make it a straightforward VFR or IFR destination for pilots exploring eastern Long Island.
Brookhaven Calabro Airport is a publicly owned general aviation airport in Shirley, New York, on the eastern end of Long Island. Operated by the Town of Brookhaven's Division of General Aviation, it began life as a wartime military airstrip and today serves a large population of based light aircraft, making it a popular and well-equipped stop for visiting sim pilots exploring the Long Island area.
The airfield lies about one mile north of the central business district of Shirley, in Suffolk County, on Long Island's south shore. New York Approach/Departure provides the surrounding terminal radar service, reflecting the airport's position within the busy New York metropolitan airspace alongside other Long Island general aviation fields such as Mattituck, Gabreski and Bayport.
Brookhaven Calabro has two paved runways. Runway 06/24 is 4,177 feet long with a hard surface, lit, and equipped with an ILS on runway 06. Runway 15/33 is 4,203 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 69 feet.
Radio services at Brookhaven include an Aerodrome frequency at 118 MHz, New York Approach/Departure for terminal control, an ASOS weather broadcast on 119.625 MHz, a clearance delivery frequency on 133.2 MHz, and UNICOM/CTAF on 122.8 MHz. An ILS is available for runway 06.
The airfield was constructed during the Second World War as the Mastic Flight Strip to support U.S. Army Air Corps logistics operations. After the war its title passed to New York State, before the Town of Brookhaven acquired the airport in 1961. It was renamed Brookhaven Calabro Airport in 1991 in honour of Dr. Frank Calabro, a significant figure in the airport's development. The field also saw non-flying civil use in 2012, when it served as a FEMA staging area in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and it was for a time home to the now-defunct Dowling College School of Aviation, which offered aviation degree programmes and took part in the FAA's Air Traffic Control Collegiate Training Initiative.
Brookhaven Calabro remains an active general aviation airport covering some 600 to 630 acres, with more than 200 based aircraft including single and multi-engine types, a helicopter and gliders. The Town of Brookhaven has invested FAA grant funding in runway, taxiway and lighting improvements, and the field is described as one of the finer general aviation facilities in the northeastern United States. On-site amenities include the Wings Café inside the terminal building, open daily from 8:00 am, with seasonal closing times of 2:00 pm in winter and 3:00 pm from late March through mid-November. The airport is open to the public around the clock.
