Departure
94%
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Dutchess County Airport, now more usually known as Hudson Valley Regional Airport, lies in the Town of Wappinger just south of Poughkeepsie, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River. Once a busy regional airline hub with a colourful wartime past, it today serves general aviation, corporate traffic and flight training beneath a part-time control tower. Its long ILS-equipped main runway and two-runway layout make it a straightforward and interesting VFR or IFR destination in the mid-Hudson Valley.
Dutchess County Airport (ICAO KPOU, IATA POU), officially renamed Hudson Valley Regional Airport in 2016, is a county-owned public-use aerodrome serving Poughkeepsie and the surrounding Dutchess County area. It sits a few miles south of the city on State Route 376 in the Town of Wappinger. The field is worth a visit for the sim pilot as much for its history as for its flying: it was the scene of a wartime meeting between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, later became a hub for a well-known commuter airline, and today combines an ILS-served main runway with general aviation, corporate and flight-training activity under a part-time tower.
The airport lies in the Town of Wappinger, Dutchess County, New York, on State Route 376, about four miles south of the central business district of Poughkeepsie and close to the east bank of the Hudson River. Stewart International Airport lies across the river to the southwest. The field is served by New York Center for en-route and approach-type services and has its own control tower for local traffic; New York Radio provides flight service coverage in the area.
Dutchess County Airport has two paved, lit hard-surface runway pairs. The main runway, 06/24, is the longer of the two, running 5,000 feet in the 06 direction and 4,885 feet as 24; runway 06 is equipped with an ILS. The crosswind runway, 15/33, is shorter, at 2,868 feet as runway 15 and 2,847 feet as runway 33. Field elevation is 154 feet.
The airport identifies itself as KPOU/POU. Tower and CTAF operations are on 124 MHz, with ground control on 121.8 MHz and clearance delivery also available. UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz, and ASOS/ATIS weather information is broadcast on 126.75 MHz. New York Radio can be contacted on 122.2 MHz, and New York Center handles the area on 132.75 MHz. Runway 06 is served by an ILS approach, supplemented by a medium-intensity approach lighting system with runway alignment indicator lights.
The control tower operates for part of the day rather than around the clock, so pilots should expect to use the published CTAF frequency outside tower hours and monitor ASOS/ATIS for current weather and active runway information before joining. No specific circuit heights or noise-abatement procedures are given in the available material, but light aircraft training activity, including circuit work on the crosswind runway, is a normal feature of operations at the field.
The airport sits close to the Hudson River and to State Route 376, which runs past the field and provides a useful ground reference for pilots inbound from the north or south. The proximity of Stewart International Airport across the river to the southwest is also a helpful orientation point when navigating the mid-Hudson Valley by eye.
The airport began life as New Hackensack Field, built by the US Department of Commerce in the 1930s as an intermediate landing field roughly midway between New York City and Albany. During the Second World War it was used by the US Army Air Forces for pilot training, supporting students from the United States Military Academy and supplementing training conducted at Stewart Field. On 17 June 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flew into the field from Naval Air Station Anacostia, where he was met by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had driven over from his nearby Hyde Park home. After the war the field passed to Dutchess County for a token one dollar under the Surplus Property Act of 1944, on condition that it remain open, and it became Dutchess County Airport, used for general aviation. IBM based corporate aircraft and helicopters there, including Gulfstream II jets, from the 1970s into the 1980s, and Cessna operated a Citation maintenance facility on the field during the 1970s. Scheduled airline service began in 1947 with Colonial Airlines flag stops linking New York City, Albany and Burlington with Montreal and Ottawa, and Mohawk Airlines added service to Binghamton from 1956 before merging into Allegheny in 1972. Through the 1960s to 1980s the airport hosted commuter carriers including Command Airways (which became American Eagle and based its headquarters, executive offices and maintenance there), Colgan Airways, Air North, Henson, Brockway Air and Metro Northeast, the last three operating as Piedmont Commuter and Trans World Express. A new 16,700 square foot passenger terminal opened in September 1980. When Stewart International Airport began commercial operations across the Hudson in 1990, scheduled airline service at Dutchess County ended, though CommutAir briefly revived a Buffalo-White Plains-Poughkeepsie-Burlington-Plattsburgh route as US Airways Express from 1991, switching to Continental Connection before withdrawing in August 2001. The airport was renamed Hudson Valley Regional Airport in 2016 following a proposal by County Executive Marc Molinaro.
The airport now handles corporate and general aviation traffic rather than scheduled airline service. US Aviation Academy operates a flight school from the main terminal, and fixed-base operator services have been provided by FlightLevel Dutchess since 2015. In October 2022 Tradewind Aviation took over two hangars at the field, one for hangar space and the other donated for use by two historic aviation nonprofit groups, the Tunison Foundation and the Hudson Valley Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. The control tower operates for part of each day rather than continuously. Prior permission may be required for some categories of visiting traffic; pilots should confirm current arrangements before flying in.