1. How It Started

Zahn's airport, on a 1967 New York Sectional chart
From a 1967 New York sectional chart

In 2006, I stumbled across a New York sectional chart from 1978. It had been tucked into an AOPA Airports Directory, and long forgotten. Having since become an X-Plane flight simulator fan, I thought it might be fun to add the Zahn’s runways to the New York scenery, and relive some old memories.

Zahn’s Airport

The Civil Air Patrol shack at Zahn's Airport
The Civil Air Patrol shack at Zahns

As a young Civil Air Patrol cadet, I spent many weekends at the CAP shack at Zahns Airport, hoping to catch a flight with one of the pilots offering orientation rides.

One of the Piper J-3 Cubs at Zahn's Airport
One of the Piper J-3 Cubs at Zahns

At 16 (before I could drive) I took my first flight lesson. It was at Zahn’s in an old J-3 Piper Cub.

Needless to say, I had many fond memories of that airport.

X-Plane

Adding the two (un-numbered!) Zahns runways to X-Plane was pretty simple. But flying a pattern around an airport-less runway loses its charm pretty quickly. The X-Plane scenery editors allowed much more detail to be added.

So I decided to add as much detail as the simulation would allow!

Next: Mapping Zahns