Sky Acres Airport Developer Douglas C. Cochran

Sky Acres Airport in 1965. Runway and taxiways, ramps etc. not paved . Oil and stone was the surface until the blacktop surface in 1966.

Douglas C Cochran. Everyone called him Doug. I called him dad. His love of country, family and aviation exceeded anyone that I l have ever known.

One of the first visitors to fly into the new Sky Acres airport in 1965. Many pilots would come for the steamed hot dogs and coffee. Hot dogs were 50 cents! Sky Acres sold Gulf avgas 80 and 100 octane

Happy Easter to all the followers of Sky Acres Airport Developer Douglas C Cochran page.

Sky Acres Airport

AirNav: 44N - Sky Acres Airport Complete aeronautical information about Sky Acres Airport (Millbrook, NY, USA), including location, runways, taxiways, navaids, radio frequencies, FBO information, fuel prices, sunrise and sunset times, aerial photo, airport diagram.

One of the first airplanes to visit Sky Acres. The pilot flew in from Dutchess County Airport about 15 minutes away for a coffee almost every Sunday. The house I lived in when my father was building the airport is in the background. The home overlooked the runway.

The woman standing in front of the 1966 Cessna 150 had just had her first solo flight at Sky Acres airport. The airplane was about two months old and had been built Kansas at the huge Cessnas plant a few months before the picture was taken. My father had a Cessna distributorship and was able to purchase the new Cessnas for cost. The price of 67X was roughly $7,000. The pilot’s lounge was built and opened up a few months before the picture was taken. The silo was painted white with the Gulf Cessna logo. I remember my father asked Gulf to pay for the silo painting and I believe that they did! Gulf avgas 80 and 100 octane roughly 42-48 cents per gallon! This was one of my favorite color scheme of the many brand new Cessna 150’s my father purchased.

Brand new Cessna 150

The snack bar was always a big hit at my fathers airport because like my dad said over 50 years ago the same is true today, “Pilots love to exchange their stories about flying over a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup!” The fact of the matter is that an airport needs a destination for it to exist and food was a way to attract the flying public and the local airplane enthusiasts to Sky Acres in the mid 60’s when it opened. My father knew this from the experiences he had when he would fly his Beechcraft Bonanza all over the country. He said that he usually would ask if the snack bar was open on Unicom before he landed. If not he would fly to an airport that the snack bar was open. It is great to report that the snack bar/restaurant at Sky Acres is now open! Stop by and enjoy. A question to anyone that reads this story, was my father right about pilots and snack bars or has his thought changed after 50 plus years?

Any pictures that anyone would like to add to the page to share your memories of Sky Acres would really be appreciated.

My father decided to build the airport basically so he could tie down his 1964 Beechcraft Bonanza in front of his house. Did I ever hear him say that to me, no, but I believe that may have been his original thought. He owned his own heavy equipment and he had built several roads and parking lots for IBM since 1945 which became the biggest employer in Poughkeepsie. He liked the idea of being able to jump into his airplane and taxi to the runway and takeoff to fly wherever he wanted. When my father bought the 160 acre farm in 1964 the general aviation business was beginning to grow like never before. The private airport dad was building for himself had no chance to be a one airplane airport. Especially when the man that built it was my father. The perfect timing to build Sky Acres Airport was exactly when he had made the decision to build the runway. The airport was a great example of what one person could accomplish in America.

My father In Canada in the mid 50’s

Class D Extensions Hudson Valley Regional Airport (POU)

As of November 3, 2022 the current New York Sectional shows two extensions to the Hudson Valley Regional Airport (POU) Class D airspace. This was done to protect the Instrument Approach Procedures (IAP) for runway 6 and 24 at POU. Please note that the Northeast and Southwest extensions may affect pilots transiting the Hudson River and arrival and departures at Sky Acres airport (N44). Reference the communications requirements for Class D airspace at 14 CFR 91.129 Contact [email protected] or 201-368-6642 for questions or further information