An acquaintance named Mark Burton recently sent me a copy of his book about an airport owned and operated by his family called Brownie’s. A few days later, I met a guy at a party who regaled me (unsolicited) with wild and woolly tales about flying out of a now defunct airport called Brownie’s with his father, who kept an airplane there. I know it, and found, on Paul Freeman’s great site Abandoned and Little Known Airfields, lots of early Brownie’s lore and photos in the Southwestern Ohio section. So it seemed like the synergy was there to share my memories of this rather unique ‘drome.
Brownie’s is a Field Out from the Past
Key Takeaways:
- The author describes Brownie's, a challenging and unique family-owned airport, which he used as a critical training ground for students and novice pilots to develop skills and confidence in difficult flying conditions.
- Brownie's featured a short, narrow, "sort of" paved runway with a displaced threshold due to telephone wires, an uphill slope, a dip, and a drop-off, making landings and takeoffs particularly harrowing and requiring precise short-field techniques.
- Once a hub for skydivers and even accommodating a DC-3, Brownie's ceased operations around 1983, embodying the broader trend of unique and historical airfields disappearing or being replaced, a history often preserved by sites like "Abandoned and Little Known Airfields."
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