By Ken Mammarella
Contributing Writer

He was 12 when Jonathan Martin decided that he wanted to be a pilot. But when his father drove him the five miles to New Garden Flying Field, he was told he was too short. 

“I walked in the door of the office, and there was this airport cat lying on this big scheduling book,”  recalled Martin, who’s now 47. “And there was a countertop, and I wasn’t very tall at the time, but the counter was above my eye level. There was a lady sitting behind the counter, and I walked in and said ‘Hi, my name is John Martin, and I want to learn to fly.’ She got up out of her seat and peered down over the counter and said ‘How old are you?’ I said ‘12.’ And she said ‘When you get old enough to see over the counter, why don’t you come back? And then we can talk.’ ”

“I was devastated. I’m sure I cried.” Yet he persisted.

He was 14 when he bought his first radio-controlled airplane, a Telemaster 70 ARF. “ARF” means almost ready to fly, stress on the “almost.” Building the plane created a gluey mess at home. Flying it “was like a game of lawn darts. You crashed a lot.” He rebuilt a lot, learning a lot about airplane construction and restoration.

He was 15 when he realized that he needed more cash for his hobby. He returned to the airport. “I got hired to cut the grass, clean the bathrooms, wash airplanes, fuel airplanes, sweep the hangar floors, answer the phone. Anything and everything. It was amazing.”

He was 31 when – after acquiring a lot of aviation knowledge and certification, a college degree and business experience – he was hired as manager of the airport. “I feel privileged to take the airport I grew up with to the next level,” he said.

‘A pillar of the community’

In 1968, Alexis Irénée and Anne du Pont opened New Garden Flying Field. In 2007, they sold it to New Garden Township, and the family flight school and maintenance center were sold in 2010. The airport, officially known as N57, covers 200 acres. “The goal is for it to be self-sustaining [financially], which it is,” Martin said. “And it’s not just an airport, but a pillar of the community.”

One building block of that pillar is in a summer camp that has drawn campers from as far as Hong Kong, Singapore and France. Enrollment in 2024 hit 270. “Our Future Aviators program started in 2009 to expose kids between the ages of 7 and 15 to all aspects of aviation. It was largely started because I was turned away as a 12-year-old,” he said. Another educational, career-inspiring program invites Kennett Middle students to experience a flight simulator.

The airport employs two dozen people to maintain and restore planes, instruct aviation students, serve as a dealer for Garmin (“the leading supplier of avionics in aircrafts across the board,” he said) and run the airport. Hangars house 130 aircraft, with another 10 tied down. All those planes, plus their pilots and passengers, need services and help the local economy.

It hosts 30,000 takeoffs or landings a year from its runway, 3,700 feet long, recently widened to 60 feet. Martin would like to lengthen it to 4,000, to handle corporate light jets.

It also is the home of Chapter 240 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which encourages young pilots; the Brandywine Soaring Association, which unites fans of gliders; and an air show.

Influence on his children

Martin and his wife, Rachael, have three children, all interested in aviation. JJ this fall started studying aerospace engineering at Penn State, where his father in 2002 earned a degree in communications. Alyssa, a student at Avon Grove High, is learning how to be a pilot. And Reagan, at 8, is “absolutely convinced that she is already an air show star,” Martin said.

“My father took me for my first airplane ride when I was 6 months old, and ever since I can remember all I have wanted to do was focus my life and livelihood around aviation,” JJ said. “When I was growing up, my father was always working on some project aviation related, whether that was building a new terminal for the airport or rebuilding an airplane, but I always remember him allowing me to be involved, and this taught me to love building things and use my hands, which eventually led me to chose to study aerospace engineering in college.”

In learning to fly from his father, JJ said the most valuable side lesson involved confidence. “When I first started taking flight lessons, I was absolutely horrified to speak on the radio when announcing traffic pattern calls. I was terrified I was going to mess up. After many flights, I finally started to get a little less scared of the radio, I remember practicing the radio calls with my dad. … He would always tell me no one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and mistakes are how people learn.”

“I was always a shy and quiet kid that never really raised my hand in class or did anything to draw attention to myself, but my dad was able to teach me confidence when teaching me to fly. … This lesson of confidence has been able to help me greatly in life.”

Rachel, an activities director at a West Chester retirement community, prefers to be a passenger.

They live on Wingate Farms, which has been in the family for decades. They’ve been growing hay for years, and this year added four black Angus cattle.

How he got to here

Key figures in Martin’s aeronautical growth include brothers Peter and Dave Malchione, who introduced him to  radio-controlled planes.

He also bonded over aviation with Court Dunn, his science teacher and hockey coach at Upland Country Day School. Years later, their relationship reversed, with Martin completing Dunn’s training as a pilot. Dunn and Martin founded the Future Aviators camp, and they built the flight school together.

“From Day 1, he’s had a vision to transform this tiny airport,” Dunn said, “And it’s remarkable what Jon has done, without a dime from taxpayers. He’s a pied piper for drawing people there and turning it into an economic engine, one of the most popular airports in the area.

Tailspin Tony and Cash Register Kate gave him his first airplane ride, in a 1929 Beech Travel Air. “They noticed me as a young airport grunt and said ‘We know you’d never been up in an airplane. How would you like to go for a biplane ride after work?’ I said ‘Absolutely.’ It was very surreal. Open cockpit, and so all the environment is right there: wind in your face, the smell of gas and burning oil. When I got to the ground, the deal was sealed. I knew I needed to get my pilot license.”

The Denest family (Joe and his son Mark) restored planes. “Whenever I wasn’t working, I went down to their hangar and was exposed to aircraft restoration. By that I mean Joe gave me a piece of sandpaper and said ‘See that wing over there? Go sand it.’ I largely attribute my love for antique airplanes because of Joe. I made it my goal to restore an airplane of my own and fly it to Oshkosh.” (That’s the annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture, which draws 500,000 people and 10,000 planes each year to Wisconsin.)

‘Old-airplane disease’

Martin has gone far beyond the basic private pilot license to add an instrument rating (needed to fly in the clouds), tailwheel rating (for those types of airplanes), commercial license (to be able to be paid to fly), flight instructor rating and multi-engine rating (for planes with multiple engines).

His career trajectory changed when giving a flying lesson to Bob Norris, a member of the New Garden board of supervisors. Norris suggested that he apply to run the airport. Martin took a day and a half to think about it, partly because it would be a pay cut from his job as a management consultant and partly because he recognized some challenges he would face. “People would not land here because of the condition of the runway, and the maintenance shop had multiple concerns. It was a heck of an opportunity, but we certainly had our work cut out for us.”

On the side, Martin has what he calls “old-airplane disease,” a love bordering on an obsession. In his anecdotes, he immediately rattled off the makes, models and years of planes involved, contrasted to the way he first identified his vehicle as just “a pickup truck.”

He now owns four planes: a 1946 Fairchild 24; a 1943 Taylorcraft L2M; a 1965 Beechcraft Baron B55 that’s big enough to carry the whole family; and a Great Lakes biplane that started as four boxes of plans and a frame that another fan had begun and is still under construction. 

How does he accomplish it all – running the airport, devoting thousands of hours to each restoration and being a good husband and father? One secret is his sleep cycle. “If I get four hours, I’m perfect.”