Forty years of shared skies
MAFC began the way the best clubs do: a group of pilots who lost their flying club and decided that simply wasn't acceptable. Four airports, four decades, and thousands of logbook entries later, the idea is unchanged.
Born from the Fort Monmouth Army Flying Club
When military policy changes ended the Fort Monmouth Army Flying Club, its members refused to let the flying stop. In the fall of 1985 they formed the Monmouth Area Flying Club — civilian, member-owned, and determined to keep affordable aviation alive on the Jersey Shore.
First flights from Allaire
Operations began in early 1986 at Allaire Airport. Membership was initially restricted to Department of Defense personnel — a club of soldiers, engineers, and civil servants who shared airplanes and a habit of doing things by the book.
Bell Labs joins the pattern
The club opened its doors to Bell Laboratories staff, adding a generation of engineers and scientists to the roster — and beginning the tradition of members who could both fly an ILS and explain exactly how it works.
Open to everyone
With the move to Marlboro and Lakewood Airports, membership restrictions were dropped entirely. From then on, MAFC has been open to anyone with the aviation bug — pilots and would-be pilots of all ages and ratings.
One home: Lakewood (N12)
When Marlboro Airport closed in September 2002, the club consolidated at Lakewood Airport — a friendly, uncrowded field on the Monmouth/Ocean county line with a pilot-owned FBO and a clubhouse the members have kept ever since.
Five aircraft, four decades, one logbook
Today MAFC operates five well-maintained aircraft — four Cessna 172s including a G1000 glass Skyhawk, and a Diamond DA40 — as a 501(c)(7) non-profit governed by a member-elected Board of Trustees. The mission hasn't changed since 1985: keep flying safe, social, and affordable.
Lakewood Airport (N12)
Every club is shaped by its field. Ours is a 2,500-foot paved strip in the pines — the kind of runway that keeps your landings honest.
Lakewood Airport opens as a gravel strip carved out of the pine forest, home to an FBO and a Civil Air Patrol squadron.
The paved 2,500-foot runway 6-24 is built, and a 1,800-foot circle cleared from the pines turns the field into the famous Lakewood Sport Parachute Center — chosen for its remoteness, soft sandy terrain, and equal distance from New York and Philadelphia.
A quiet, friendly GA field next to the Blue Claws stadium: pilot-owned FBO, the CAP building where the club meets, and the MAFC clubhouse just left of the terminal.
The next chapter gets written every third Saturday.
Clubs like this survive forty years for one reason: new members who care. Come add your name to the story.
Questions? Call Mark Sheprow, Membership Officer — 732.685.3473