Jaime Steel-Potter and her husband, Danny Potter, saved Phillipsburg Airport (3I7) in Ohio. Not only has the airport acquisition had a positive impact on their business, Steel Aviation, it represented a sentimental move for her.  

“I grew up here. It’s where my dad had his original paint shop and have been around the airport since I was 7 or 8 years old,” Steel-Potter said. “The former owner had some health issues and had to sell Phillipsburg [in 2012]. The grass was 4 feet tall. The pavement, the runway, and everything was a total mess. But because I had known how the airport was before, and how busy it was, I knew it was worth saving.”

When the couple jumped in to keep the airport running, there was one small detail that would become a time-consuming and costly challenge to overcome. 

“Next to the airport there is a huge commercial nursery where they grow plants and trees, who had their eye on the airport to turn into an extension of their current property,” she said. “I couldn’t stand to know that it would have been a nursery had we not saved it. This company is the largest landowner in the county, and they had their eyes [on the airfield], and partial claim on ownership. 

“When we bought the airport, the center section of the runway was not owned by the current owners. The nursery had actually ended up purchasing that section of the land, and they sued us to close the airport. But the former owner of the airport had a first right of refusal to be able to purchase the land. It didn’t matter whether she could afford it or not, because she clearly couldn’t. We countersued and said, ‘Hey, look. We should have the opportunity, or at least Mrs. Miller should have the opportunity, to buy this land and you passed over her.’ The judge agreed and issued a summary judgment. We needed to come up with over half a million dollars in seven days.”

Steel-Potter said that this victory felt like a David and Goliath story. The duo has since invested more of their time and money into improving Phillipsburg for their business and the local aviation community. 

“There are 70 hangars here in total and we’ve put in 24 of them,” she said. “Some of the hangars are pretty old, though, so we are going to be tearing those down and putting new ones up. We have also renovated the existing main FBO building, have bought another building, and expanded my dad’s original paint shop with a new addition. We are also putting in a new FBO building with a really cool event space. It will be an airplane showroom for both Cirrus and Diamond aircraft [Steel Aviation is a Diamond Aircraft dealer for an eight-state territory and Jaime has closed over 2,700 used Cirrus].

“Then on the weekends, people will be able to rent it out for weddings and other events. Along with the event space, we are going to put in a commercial kitchen, and it’d be really cool if we could get a restaurant to come in and lease the space.” 

Phillipsburg Airport is a visible landmark for area residents, with an estimated 50,000 or more cars driving by each day. The addition of an on-field restaurant would further improve the accessibility of pilots and nonpilots interested in the airport and what is going on there. 

“In the summer 2023, we tore up the existing runway and put in a brand new 3,250-foot-long-by-75-foot-wide runway,” Steel-Potter said. “We haven’t really encouraged people to fly here [previously] because we used to have a 40-foot-wide runway until July. So really, unless pilots were really on their game, it was kind of dangerous to be here, and it was intimidating to some people. Now, we have a wider runway and a little bit more room in terms of a tarmac. So, we will start trying to get more people here.” 

This means an invitation for transient pilots, as well as other aviation businesses. She noted that there has been interest from flight schools and a vocational program, about basing their operations at Phillipsburg. Another possibility for the future is the addition of hangar condos. 

Like many other privately owned airport owners, Steel-Potter said that airport ownership isn’t the best path to financial independence. However, while she admits that owning an airport is challenging, it has been a rewarding experience for her. 

“I often say that this place is like a money pit because we receive no federal funding and no grant money,” she said. “It truly is self-funded. But the beauty of that is that we put up two rows of T-hangars and they put the same two rows of hangars down at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport [KMGY]. We were able to get ours up in three months, and it took them two and a half years at quadruple the cost. And I own these hangars and don’t have a lease. From that standpoint, it’s been really beneficial. The flip side to that is when it snows, we have to maintain the runway. When it needs to be crack-sealed, or even a new runway surface is needed, I’m responsible for that. There are pluses and minuses.

“We’ve looked at moving to Dayton International Airport [KDAY, located8 nm east] or moving some of our operations there. But I would put up a couple of million-dollar facilities that I would give back to the airport in 20 years and would still be responsible for the maintenance, taxes, and an impact fee. I would be paying the city $10,000 a month just to be on the land. When I bought Phillipsburg, I was 32, and it just didn’t make sense to take it and build that facility in Dayton to have to give it back in 20 years. It made more sense to take a chance on this place, and thankfully, it has worked out.” 

A lot of the airport’s success can be credited to its headlining tenant, Steel Aviation.

“I think the only way to truly make it work, and the only way that we’ve made it work here, is because we have Steel Aviation,” she said. “If I just were trying to run this place as a privately owned airport, it would never support itself, at least not to the level it does now with all of the new improvements. We get a ton of customers from Steel coming in and supporting the place. But to stand alone on its own, without everything that we have going on here, it would be tough.”

The post Ohio GA Airport Beats with a Heart of Steel appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Far too often we hear about airports being for sale after the fact. Most of the time, a new aviator will continue operating the airfield in its intended capacity. But other times—the runway will fade into distant memory.

Jack Poff, the founder of Shumway “Innernational” Airport (IL05) in Effingham, Illinois, hopes that the facility will still be used as an airport once it’s sold.

“Well, I sure hope we do get to sell it as an airport, because at the point it doesn’t sell that way, it’ll revert back to farm ground,” Poff said. “And that would absolutely break my heart. I can tell you that I put enough work, love, and TLC into this property that I would hate to see it be anything else.” 

To understand Poff’s attachment to the airport with the 2,338-foot grass runway, you have to look back at why it was built. In 2006, the construction professional by trade decided to find a piece of land suitable for a runway, following the reentrance into aviation after a long break.

“After I got married and started raising a family, I was out of aviation for quite a while,” Poff said. “But after my son was born, he started getting interested in remote control airplanes, and we joined a club here in the area. The fellow that owned the place where we flew the remote-controlled planes decided to sell the property, and it was no longer going to be available for us to use.”

Poff explained that flying remote control planes ultimately turned into flying fixed-wing aircraft again and the desire to own his own airport. That’s because the two had nowhere suitable for him and his son to fly. 

“Along the same time, I went up to EAA AirVenture [in Wisconsin] with my son, and we ended up over in the homebuilt section,” he said. “I had been out of aviation for a while, so I was asking some of the homebuilders what they would recommend, as far as planes to build. And they said, ‘definitely a Van’s.’ Within a year or so, I decided that we were going to start in on an RV-9A build.

“I bought the different kits to assemble and started working on them in my garage. It got to the point [in the build process] that I told my wife, ‘Now you’re going to have to start parking outside because I need more room to build my airplane.’ She told me that I was going to have to find somewhere else to build it. Along the same time, I was also looking for a place for the remote-control field. And then I thought, ‘Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Why not go ahead and find enough property to have a full-scale runway?’” 

Poff started talking to a local farmer who, after some persuasion, was willing to part with some of his land. But it would take several acquisitions to piece enough parcels together to create a suitable landing site. He wound up with 37.72 acres, where he built a 5,200 square-foot hangar/shop and an attached 2,344 square-foot, three-bedroom apartment.

The airfield has served its purpose well. For nearly two decades, Poff has flown an RV-9A from it, albeit a different one than he purchased shortly after his first visit to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh. He now believes that the time he spends mowing the airstrip will be better used toward finally finishing his nearly complete RV build.

“Sometime in the middle of doing all of the work last summer, I decided that I was spending an awful lot of time working on the airport and the runway,” he said. “But again, no time to spend on building the airplane, which now is going into its 20th year of construction. So, I’m getting really close, but I’m not done yet. I just want to finish it up. And frankly, after hosting fly-ins the last 15 or so years, I shouldn’t get all of the fun. Someone else should enjoy it.” 

Poff said that over 350 people and 65 aircraft attended the last fly-in the airstrip hosted in 2022. It included a pulled pork luncheon cooked by his wife, Darlene. 

“Before I decided to sell the airport, I decided to improve the runway,” he said. “There were a couple of places where it was a little bit rough and there were some different things that I wanted to do. I wanted to move it 10 feet farther to the north to give it more development potential. If you’re going to develop lots, you need all the extra space that you can get. So we decided to [do that on the south side of the runway]. The airport was closed during all of 2023, and we got the grass planted at just the right time. It really looks great.

“Shumway Innernational has always been a favorite of all people that like to land on grass. I’ll say it’s their favorite place to land here in southern Illinois. And it’s even better now, in better shape than it’s ever been.”

The post Illinois Grass Strip Airfield Ready for Next Generation of Owners appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It’s always refreshing to see a headline that begins with “new airport opening.” During a time when airports continue to be threatened, Chennault Airfield (25TX) in Conroe, Texas, opened in November. 

This airport wasn’t entirely new, though. The acreage where Chennault Airfield’s 3,100-foot runway sits was once the site of an aerial spraying operation during the 1970s. At the time, it was called the Cut and Shoot Airport (19TE). 

The 35-acre Chennault Airfield is owned and operated by the Chennault Aviation Academy, which has more than 100 active students and instructors. Skye Nowlin, CFI/CFII and communications coordinator, explained that the flight school’s name pays homage to Claire Lee Chennault, an American military aviator who led the Flying Tigers squadron during World War II. The owner and CEO of Chennault Aviation Academy previously lived in Monroe, Louisiana—Chennault’s hometown— where he had built a relationship with the Chennault Foundation.

• READ MORE: 80 Years Later, the Legacy of the Flying Tigers Endures

Since its founding in 2017, Chennault Aviation Academy has been based at another area airport. As the flight school continued to grow, its ownership considered different options for the base of its operations.

“In March of 2022, our owner was told about the airfield property after he found out that we were not going to keep the current hangar that we were originally located in at Conroe Airport (KCXO), as it was being purchased,” Nowlin said. “Our owner, Aaron Wang, bought the property for the airfield in April that same year, and construction began in April 2023.

“The property was completely overgrown, and you wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as the airstrip that it used to be. It took about a year to figure out the logistics of how they were going to be able to make this work. During construction, they ended up having to build up the area of the runway and our hangar area with about 6 inches of dirt. They built up this area to allow for better drainage and prevent flooding in the future.

“Additionally, during construction, there was a retention pond to aid in preventing flooding and a 1.5-million-gallon fire pond as a preventive measure to help extinguish and prevent the spread of fire.”

Nowlin noted that the property went from full of trees to neatly cleared with a functioning runway in only six short months. Phase one of the project included construction of the asphalt runway, taxiway, and flight school hangar/training building, and a second phase will soon be underway. 

“Phase two includes the construction of hangars that are going to be available for rent or purchase for people that want to have their aircraft based here,” Nowlin said. “We currently don’t have a set number [for how many hangars there will ultimately be]. But we are going to have a combination of T-style hangars and box hangars as we have got feedback that people are interested in both styles.”

Nowlin also pointed out that the airport’s operations are currently limited to a select group of pilots.

“We are still published as a private airfield, and we are planning to always stay that way,” she said. “Currently, operations out of this airfield are only for students at the flight school, but we have fuel. So, we are going to start offering for people to come here, and they will have to obtain permission prior to coming in here.”

Not only will more aviators be able to fly into Chennault Airfield in the future, but more businesses may also join the flight school as on-field service providers. 

“We are underway in developing a maintenance school, hopefully in the next year—as long as the FAA approval process goes well,” Nowlin said. “There are other future plans that we plan to announce in the future. We plan to be a fully functioning airfield, completely sustainable on our own.”

The post New Texas Airport Honors WWII Aviation Legend appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Autumn and Nathan Adams have both embraced what they call the “small world in aviation.” Having grown up with fond memories of the same one-stoplight town, they longed to find a place where they could once again be close with their neighbors while enjoying the convenience of living alongside their aircraft. 

Their solution was to move to a residential airpark. After years of wanting to move to an aviation community, the couple finally had the opportunity at Massey Ranch Airpark (X50) in Edgewater, Florida. 

“I grew up in a town of about 130 people,” Autumn Adams said. “That small town feel is one of the things I have missed the most about Indiana. We were in Merritt Island, Florida, for almost 10 years, and we loved the area. But we only got to know a few neighbors the whole time we lived there. People mostly kept to themselves. We’ve only lived in Massey Ranch since June 2023, and we already know almost everyone and their dogs. It’s the sense of community that we enjoy the most.”

• READ MORE: Seeking to Silo in Montana

Nathan is a pilot and Autumn isn’t, although said she’s just as obsessed with aviation. It was a shared goal to one day live at a fly-in community.  

“Well, when Nathan and I got married, we were still living in Indiana,” she said. “But we always talked about moving to Florida. I remember when he was telling me about airparks. I had never seen one before, and I thought it sounded really cool. So, moving to an airpark was always in the back of our mind, even though we were nowhere near ready for that undertaking. It’s been our goal since 2007 and took longer than we initially expected.”

The couple moved to Florida in 2012, and their first home in the state was not in a fly-in community. They were still interested in one day moving to an airpark, and there was one neighborhood that they would visit more than others. The town of Edgewater had the small town feel they wanted. They also loved its close proximity to New Smyrna Beach. As an added bonus, Nathan had fond memories of Massey Ranch from his college days.

“The idea of living in the airpark, especially for me, was from when I was down here at Embry-Riddle [Aeronautical University],” Nathan said. “I worked at Massey Ranch…for a mechanic just doing odds-and-ends jobs. I’m not a mechanic, but I was like a shop guy, carrying parts around, taking stuff apart and things like that. So, I had already seen Massey Ranch and just thought that was the coolest thing—that all these people live there all the time, and their planes were in their hangars. I thought, this is great!”

• READ MORE: Keller Brothers Airport Remains a Family Affair

Nathan also had familiarity with other fly-in communities in the area. The couple recalled that once they were ready to move with their Van’s RV-8, the market was extremely competitive.

“Over the years we had looked at a few homes in Massey Ranch, and for one reason or another, they didn’t work out,” he said. “We knew how fast things had been selling recently. We had just missed out on a house due to a cash buyer. The reason we got the home we are in now was because of Autumn being the diligent, organized person she is. So, she actually went on Zillow several years ago and marked off every single address that had access to the airport and said notify me if there’s any change.

“The day that the listing for our house came available, we actually called the realtor within 20 minutes, and within an hour, we were meeting with him. We knew how fast things had been going and had just missed out on two houses we made offers on…[and] couldn’t get [them] because of cash buyers. We made an offer to buy [our] house the same day. It really was her diligence that absolutely caused this to become a reality in the end, after all of these years looking, searching, and trying.”

• READ MORE: Fly-In Camping at River Bend Aero Ranch

The fly-in community consists of a single 4,360-foot-by-60-foot asphalt runway with roughly 45 homes. Living steps from your aircraft can’t be beat, the couple says. But more than anything, they like the small town feel of Massey Ranch and the sense of community it provides. 

“What I love the most about Massey is there are tons of different types of backgrounds,” Autumn said. “We have neighbors that have been flying their whole lives, like me. We have neighbors that have recently learned to fly. There are even a few that hope to one day learn to fly but already embrace the airpark lifestyle.

“The excitement about aviation is real here. Almost every night, around sunset, people go flying. Around the same time, a little pile of golf carts starts showing up by the edge of the runway to watch the planes come and go. After landing most pilots eventually find their way back to the gathering of carts. Despite all the different personalities and backgrounds, it feels like we all grew up together. Our family has only been here for a short time, and yet we feel welcome with everyone.”

The post Finding a Small World at a Florida Airpark appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Montana’s Flathead Valley is a widely acclaimed summer and winter destination, known for its pristine clear water lakes, ski resorts, and—most notably—Glacier National Park. 

The Silo House fly-in rental in Kalispell is conveniently situated near the area’s attractions but benefits from its tranquil location at Sky Ranch Airport (MT95). The increasingly popular accommodation is owned by Tom Bass and Susan Jasmann, longtime residents of the area who individually share a passion for aviation and horses.

“We opened the Silo House four years ago,” Bass said. “Two months later, COVID hit and every reservation was canceled. We thought we were going to go broke but actually did quite well during the pandemic because of what you can do here.

“Montana’s number one economic source is recreation, and people flock here because of all the things to do. People that stay at the Silo House for a week spend two or three days at Glacier [National] Park and the rest with all the activities Flathead Valley has to offer. There are places to ride horses, fly fish, hike, float the rivers, zip lines, rent RVs or boats, and many other things. Flathead Lake, which is only 2 miles from the Silo House, is 50 miles long and is about 6 miles wide on average.”

The fly-in rental features a unique architectural style. It is a memorable starting point for a pilot’s adventures in northwest Montana.

“One of the four lots we own was the original farmhouse for the section of land that MT95 is built on,” Bass said. “The farmhouse was 100 years old, and we took it down to the studs and doubled its size. The farmer’s original grain bins on the lot needed to be repurposed and the Silo House was born. All of the exterior is rock, barnwood, and silos. The interior is industrial modern with dramatic steel beams, lots of glass, stunning views, and custom wood furniture. With the patio, an acre of grass, and stunning views: This is the place you want to come home to at the end of the day. The initial goal of the house from day one was to be designed from the ground up as a vacation rental.”

• READ MORE: Keller Brothers Airport Remains a Family Affair

The project’s website provides an overview of its amenities.

“The Silo House has an open floor plan with plenty of room to entertain, with windows overlooking a wetlands pond and the dramatic Rocky Mountains,” he said. “There are two large bedrooms with comfy king-size beds, a round loft with three twins (for kids or adults), two bathrooms, and private study with a twin which is in the silo over the master bedroom. A round fully stocked kitchen is a phenomenal place to cook, and there is a stunning bar area. The beautiful rustic wood kitchen table comfortably seats 10.

“You can enjoy your cup of coffee in front of the fireplace or out on the beautifully appointed patio, which has an outdoor bar area and fire pit for both summer and winter nights. Also, bring your binoculars for sightings of all sorts of animal life, bird watching, and horses in the pasture next door.”

Bass contends that the unique project has continued to be successful, post-pandemic, for several reasons. More than anything, having a rental home with direct runway access is a rarity in northwest Montana. Pilots have taken notice of the ease of taxiing to their accommodation.

• READ MORE: Fly-In Camping at River Bend Aero Ranch

As a point of reference, Kalispell City Airport (S27) is 6 nm northwest, and Glacier Park International (KGPI) is 12 nm to the north of Sky Ranch Airport. When you land at the Silo House, your hosts will take you to one of several car rental locations and help with your luggage.

Bass, a Cessna 180 owner, offered an overview of some of the notable airstrips in the area. He is happy to help curate a list of “must-sees” for pilots visiting, both on land and the water. He has been to Alaska 15 times on floats and frequented many of the Idaho backcountry strips. If you need help in planning your dream flying adventure, he will be there to help you.

“I am familiar with all of the local runways around here, including backcountry runways,” he said. “There are four backcountry runways less than 40 miles away that all have great camping locations. Three of them—Schafer, Meadow Creek, and Spotted Bear—are a few hundred feet away from spectacular fly fishing spots. Flights over the mountains in this area will give you breathtaking views.

• Spotted Bear (8U4) – 27 miles; 3,672 feet msl; 3,800-foot runway
• Meadow Creek (0S1) – 35 miles; 3,993 feet msl; 2,800-foot runway
• Schafer (8U2) – 38 miles; 4,854 feet msl; 3,200-foot runway
• Ryan Field (2MT1) – 23 miles; 3,660 feet msl; 2,500-foot runway

“These backcountry strips are all in the mountains and should only be attempted by pilots with mountain flying experience. For those that are not seasoned backcountry pilots, there are instructors around here that seriously know what they are doing. They know what they’re doing because daily they help a lot of people who are flown into these strips as a place to start their hikes.”

The well-manicured grass runway at Sky Ranch Airport is much less intimidating to the visiting pilot, sitting at an estimated 2,905 feet msl. According to Bass, 100LL fuel is typically available for guests so that they don’t have to fly to another airport to fill up. 

“MT95 is the biggest grass strip in Montana,” he said. “It’s 5,000 feet long and 220 feet wide, but we have designated a 50-foot taxiway on each side. There are no obstacles, so it is easy to get in and out of.”

The post Seeking to Silo in Montana appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Keller Brothers Airport (08N) in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, is a family-owned and operated airfield. Dan and Caleb Keller, a father-and-son duo, sat down with FLYING to provide an overview of the multigenerational endeavor.

“My father, Norman [Keller], built the airport with his brother in 1946,” Dan Keller said. “They both had a love for aviation and were born into a family of [Church of] the Brethren. My dad knew that his parents wouldn’t let him fly because it was too worldly. When he was in high school, he would sneak out and take flying lessons at a local airport.

“So, he was doing this for months. Then one day my grandpa went to pick him up from school to help on the farm and was told that his son was taking flying lessons. My dad was then told that he could not fly. But a couple of weeks after that, seeing how sad he had become, [my grandpa] went to the airport with him and watched planes. Then my grandparents let my dad learn to fly.” 

Shortly after accepting their son’s dreams of becoming a pilot, the family purchased some property— which was the perfect place to land an airplane. The original runway was originally 600 feet long. At the time, Norman Keller flew a Cub but upgraded to a 1961 Piper PA-24-180 Comanche, and the runway was expanded to 2,700 feet.

The airport has served as the base for Dan Keller’s many aerial adventures since he was 6 years old. Similarly, Caleb Keller’s early flying escapades are rooted at the nearly 80-year-old airfield. Both have fond memories there and are grateful to be able to enjoy their shared passion. 

Keller Brothers Airport remains a point of pride for the family and is home to approximately 30 airplanes, as well as a nearly equal number of hangar spaces. 

“We have a pretty long hangar waiting list but get caught between wanting to expand to accommodate more pilots and not wanting to lose the charm of being a smaller airport,” Caleb said. “We have kept the operation entirely privately funded and have done everything on our own. We have looked into that [accepting public funds], and after evaluating, we have just decided to do it with our own funds and the way we wanted to do it,”

The family is diligent about upkeep and improving the airport, Caleb said.

“In 2005, we got two RNAV approaches put in, one for each runway—Runway 25 and Runway 7,” Caleb said. “Around the same time, we put in a self-serve fuel tank for 100LL. This was one of my high school projects. We also have pilot-controlled lighting. Just yesterday I did a nighttime instrument approach into Keller Brothers in the Bonanza just for fun. My dad and I had no reason to get in the air. We just wanted to get together and fly”

Not only has attention been given to the runway surface, but thought has also been put into the airspace surrounding it as well. The duo noted there is an aerobatic box that is between 1,500 and 4,000 feet msl.

“Every year we roll the runway to keep it nice and smooth and to make sure it continues to drain well,” Dan said. “My dad was very particular in building things and definitely was when he made the runway. We get a lot of calls from people asking whether it’s too wet to land here, and there are not many days where it is. We don’t have any big wet spots or anything like that.”

Even during a hard rain, pilots are able to land and taxi into the hangar without encountering any soft spots, Dan said.

“So, that’s a big thing, and a lot of instructors come here for soft field and turf training because it’s a very smooth runway,” Dan said. “In fact, we once received a compliment from someone who said that it’s just like landing on a 2,700-foot-long pool table because it’s so smooth.” 

The family happily hosts other aviators at the airfield with the long-standing tradition of weekend fly-ins. While hosted at irregular intervals, the fly-ins are popular with aviators of all types, with many of them popping up tents under their wings. While nothing is set in stone, the duo hinted that one could be held this fall.

Caleb Keller’s career has also taken off at the airport, where his tailwheel and aerobatic training school, Appalachian Aviators, is located. He hopes that his continued involvement with flight training and maintaining the airport will have a positive impact on his children, the airport’s fourth generation. 

In addition to the on-field structures, another asset commemorates the airport’s storied history and the Kellers’ passion for aviation. 

“The same Comanche that…my dad soloed in, and my grandpa bought brand new, is back at the airport,” Caleb said. We had sold the plane a while back, and it was out in Las Vegas, where it had been sitting for six years. But last spring, we were able to get it back, and we had a little bit of an adventure ferry flight getting that back to here. Our first leg was from North Las Vegas Airport (KVGT) to Amboy, California. Then from there, we brought her home over the Grand Canyon and the Rockies. We had a blast and are happy to have the airplane back in the hangar that was built for it.”

The post Keller Brothers Airport Remains a Family Affair appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Greg and Tabitha Booher are both pilots living their dreams and sharing them with others in Mena, Arkansas. In September 2002, Tabitha purchased a 117-acre property 9 nm east of Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport (KMEZ). This property had a single-family home with an open hangar attached to a shop and nearly a quarter-mile of frontage on the Ouachita River.

What really drew her to the property, though, was its grass airstrip.  

In 2006, Tabitha met Greg, an aircraft mechanic and manager of Livingston Municipal Airport (8AD) in Tennessee, while she was vacationing in the area. Six weeks later, they were married in Tabitha’s Bonanza over Dale Hollow Lake. After a few years of living in north central Tennessee, the Boohers decided to return to Arkansas and open the airstrip for others to enjoy as well. So, River Bend Aero Ranch, a fly-in campground, was born. 

“There aren’t many grass strips like ours around, with 153 acres and only one home,” said Tabitha Booher. “There are lots of trails through the woods, and it is a great place to be. I love living here and enjoying nature, but we have always felt like it was too wonderful not to share.” 

Tabitha still has her Bonanza, and Greg has a Twin Comanche, as well as several other planes including a Great Lakes biplane that was the inspiration of the River Bend Aero Ranch logo. To safely accommodate these and visiting aircraft, the Boohers purchased two neighboring properties and extended the sole north-south runway several years ago. It is now 3,300 feet long by 75 feet wide at an estimated elevation of 910 feet msl. 

“We bought the property off the north end of the runway and took down a bunch of large trees and cleared a few acres to the south to open up the approaches and departures out of here,” Tabitha said. “Greg is an IA, as well as a pilot, and he says you are more likely to have a partial power failure than a full power failure, so eliminating those trees can really help. It’s a pretty long grass strip, as far as grass strips go, and it is very smooth.

“We are not on the sectional, so we have this out-of-sight, out-of-mind feeling. That probably keeps the random person from dropping in, but there are a lot of folks around here that know about us. We encourage people to come out here, especially pilot training and people wanting to practice approaches or an ‘emergency’ landing, that kind of thing.”

One of the other significant improvements the couple made to the land wasn’t related to aviation but rather their equestrian interests—primarily barrel racing. But even though the shelter was made for horses, airplanes can use it as well. 

“I asked Greg, ‘What do you think the biggest plane that could land here is?’” Tabitha said. ”Although he said a DC-3, at the time we didn’t know anybody with a DC-3. But we looked up the dimensions and built the building 120-foot-by-75-foot deep with a 19-foot side wall for my horse arena, which is just a dirt floor. We could always put an airplane in there if we need to. And it wasn’t long after that someone wanted to come to our fly-in with their C-47. They would end up flying a Luscombe in instead, but it was kind of funny that the other plane could have fit. So far, no DC-3 has flown here, although they could.”  

Large, certified twins aren’t the only aircraft that could fly into the airstrip, either. River Bend Aero Ranch is welcoming to drones, ultralights, and experimental aircraft. Tabitha provided a brief overview of the many recreational opportunities available in southwestern Arkansas. The Boohers, with advance scheduling, are available to drive fly-in guests to local attractions in the surrounding mountains.  

“The county we are in is 37 percent national forest and the counties to the north and east are both 65 percent national forest,” she said. ”So, there are a lot of areas to get out and enjoy nature. Wolf Pen Gap is one of the largest attractions with over 40 miles of ATV/UTV trails and rentals available. The Cherry Hill Store and Cafe is only a mile from the ranch and Little Missouri Falls is a nice day trip especially in late spring. Queen Wilhelmina State Park is at the top of Rich Mountain with beautiful overlooks along the Talimena National Scenic Byway.

“Downtown Mena has shopping and a restaurant that’s more than 100 years old. On the ranch there are miniature cattle (American Dexters) and horses. Additionally, many folks like walking the trails or fishing in the Ouachita River or one of the stocked ponds. If you like to swim, the river has a long, deep section, or take a kayak or canoe down it.”

The word has gotten around to some that River Bend Aero Ranch is a great place to stay. The Boohers used to host fly-ins regularly but haven’t in some time, though they are happy to do so in the future. They are still always glad to accommodate fly-in visitors (and campers), having converted the shop into a vacation rental space for pilots. 

• READ MORE: Sleeping on The Field: Airports With Campgrounds

“It’s more like flying out to the country and enjoying yourself alone than going where there is a crowd, like you have at an airshow,” Tabitha Booher said. “It’s not commercialized at all. We have an apartment in our barn, which used to be a hangar. We have also built a 50-by-100-foot hangar since moving here. So, we can usually put airplanes inside. We don’t charge anything for people to camp here but do take donations. We also have five or six RV hookups here and an RV park right next door.” 

Greg Booher said that the couple would love for more pilots to visit their airstrip and that most have heard about River Bend Aero Ranch through word of mouth. They suspect an upcoming solar eclipse on April 8 will be a significant draw for pilots from around the country. 

“We have the URL flyincampground.com that we have had probably for 15 years,” Greg said. “That brings some traffic our way. We get a lot of flybys but not a lot of people that stop. We would like to have more activity but don’t know how to get people’s attention, I guess. We will treat you in so many ways, you will have to like one of ’em!

“We have a big thing coming up [in] April. The [solar] eclipse is coming through Mena, and I guess we are supposed to have some of the longest time of total eclipse, something like 4 minutes and 7 seconds of darkness. They are expecting 30,000 people to come to town and over 100 airplanes flying into Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport. So, if anyone was looking to avoid the traffic there, this would be a good place to land, hang out, and enjoy the eclipse.”

The post Fly-In Camping at River Bend Aero Ranch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Ask any pilot who has flown to Leadville-Lake County Airport (KLXV) in Colorado, and they will tell you it was one of the most memorable places they’ve landed. With an elevation of 9,934 feet msl, it is North America’s highest public-use airport. 

Airport manager Josh Adamson explained that Lake County is on many aviators’ bucket lists. Unlike many other airports, it offers visitors a document to commemorate their first visit. 

“We actually have people fly here from all over the world because they have heard about the ‘Certificate of Navigation,’ and they want it,” Adamson said. “So, we do those for free, and it is a fun service. And we sell a lot of shirts, hats, and coffee mugs too.” 

There are special considerations for pilots when flying to high-altitude airports. But Adamson said Leadville is not plagued by the obstacles of many other mountain-flanked facilities in the state. 

“We don’t have any of the [obstacle clearance] issues that Aspen has, for example,” he said. “We are not on the valley floor, but we have a pretty broad, open valley here where the airport is located. But actually, terrain wise, it is pretty simple to fly to Lake County Airport. A lot of people approach from the south, and you can fly down in the valley. Once they get here…, they are like, ‘Oh, that really wasn’t that bad!”

Adamson pointed out that while there may not be a box canyon or frequent turbulence when flying into Lake County, it still can be a challenging airport.

“The biggest thing to keep in mind is to check the DA [density altitude] because that gets pretty high up here in the summers,” he said. “A normal summer day here I would say is probably 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is 72, you are usually looking at a DA at around 11,000, maybe getting into the 12,000 range. If we get any hotter than that, I’ve seen it higher—in the 13[000]s.”

• READ MORE: What Is Density Altitude?

A video published by the Colorado Department of Transportation provides an aerial glimpse of the facility and nearby terrain. There are several instrument procedures (RNAV) for KLXV, as well as a tailored departure procedure. 

Adamson, a transplant to the area originally hailing from Nebraska, said he is happy to educate transients on the abundant recreational opportunities nearby. One of the highlights of the airport’s central location in the state is  seven ski resorts within an hour’s drive, including Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, and Vail. 

“You fly to Leadville for what’s around because I think probably half of our county is public national forest land,’ he said. “So, there’s hiking, snowboarding, snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, off-roading, and more. The Arkansas River starts here, which is a gold medal stream for trout fishing. Then there is also hunting around as well. If you like outdoor stuff, this place is mecca. Our area has it all.” 

The airport’s most noticeable aspect from an airplane is the imposing Rocky Mountains that surround it in the distance. Adamson said the state’s two largest mountains, Mount Elbert and the aptly named Mount Massive, are located in Lake County. In the lower 48 states, these two peaks are only bested by Mount Whitney in California. 

The area’s elevation is not only a draw for mountain climbers, hunters, and other recreationists but also for OEMs and other companies completing high-altitude aircraft testing. Adamson noted that the summer months are attractive for these parties to test the upper limits of aircraft performance. 

“This year was a little slower than years past, but [summer 2022] was busy,” he said. “We had Bell out of Canada, Airbus out of France, and Leonardo out of Italy up here for the span of three months, testing. We had four helicopters here testing at one point. Our starting elevation of 9,934 msl, coupled with [a] high DA, provides the companies a perfect test bed for performance over 10,000 feet.

“Another key aspect is our weather. Most companies are looking for less than 3 knots of wind, and our mornings are very calm. Testing flights usually wrap up by 10 or 11 a.m. due to winds increasing and incoming afternoon storms. We have tested numerous other platforms [in addition to helicopters], including unmanned aerial systems (UAS), gas and turbine engines, mobile power/hydraulic/bleed air carts, side by sides, UTVs [utility task vehicles], and motor vehicles.

For aviators looking to undertake a new challenge with memorable options once on the ground, Lake County Airport is understandably a popular place. The county-run FBO at the airport offers fuel (100LL and jet-A), transient hangar space, and courtesy vehicles. The airport’s 6,400-by-75-foot-wide asphalt runway (16/34) and adjacent taxiway were fully resurfaced in 2020. A new taxi lane was built in 2023 to accommodate new hangar development.

“We own two hangars,” Adamson said. “One is 11,000 square feet that we have eight aircraft in right now, and a smaller hangar with two aircraft. And then we are looking at expanding hangar development for ground leases as well. Our close proximity to Summit County ski resorts makes [KLXV] a prime location to access these resorts via air travel at an affordable cost. A ground lease hangar would allow a pilot to keep their aircraft warm, dry, and free of ice and snow. Companies like NetJets often ask if we have hangar space during the winter months, so opportunities exist for revenue from storing transient jet traffic as well.”

Adamson concluded his summary of the airport with a short thought: “Check the DA and come get some good views!”

The post Visiting North America’s Highest Public-Use Airport appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

By profession, Joe Coraggio is a pilot for a major domestic airline. When not flying the Airbus A320, he is either busy flying his Lancair Legacy or working on his various project aircraft from his hangar home at Stellar Airpark (P19) in Chandler, Arizona. 

Coraggio’s first introduction to airpark living came in college during a time when he was starting his aviation industry career. As soon as he graduated from the University of Minnesota, he began working on and flying experimental airplanes. Last summer was transformative for him as an engineer and aviator. 

“I went to an aviation internship the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, which was intended to bridge the gap between the theory that they teach in engineering school and the practical side, actually being able to build, machine, weld, do composite layups, and things like that,” said Corragio. “Dick Keyt [with whom Coraggio completed the internship] has been a major mentor in my aviation career, both professional and recreational. I lived at an airpark, Pecan Plantation (0TX1) in Granbury, Texas, during that summer. Being there absolutely cemented the idea in my head that the coolest thing in the world that you can ever do is live with your airplane and be able to roll out of bed, fall down the stairs, make a cup of coffee, and be in the workshop in three minutes.” 

Coraggio and his spouse, Kevin James, purchased their home at Stellar Airpark last February. The residence checked the box for the duo, as the neighborhood is centered around a 4,417-foot-long asphalt runway and smack dab in the middle of the Greater  Phoenix area. 

“The biggest thing for the two of us was that I’m only home 15 days a month with my airline schedule usually, so I don’t mind if I’m far away from the city [as far as] things to do,” Coraggio said. “But the thing with Stellar is you are literally 1 mile away from a mall and restaurants. You are 15 minutes to downtown Phoenix, 15 minutes to Old Town Scottsdale, and 15 minutes to Sky Harbor Airport (KPHX). It’s a rarity to have an airpark with a major metropolitan area nearby with entertainment, shopping, and all of the conveniences nearby.”  

It may be tempting to justify living at an airpark with different means of rationalization. At the end of the day, though, the decision to move to a fly-in community is often based on personal feeling rather than reason. 

“When I was trying to make an argument to move to an airpark, I would say, ‘Well, I can get rid of 25 minutes of driving each way to the airport. I can be at least 50 minutes more productive every day I go out to the airport,’” Coraggio said. “It felt as if I was trying to justify a move to an airpark to myself and Kevin. Turns out that my justifications and rationalizations were actually underselling it. There is a compounding effect on motivation and productivity by saving time driving, being immersed in a community that values and shares my hobby, and continually having my projects in sight.”

Coraggio’s commute has been traded for time with a wrench or behind the yoke. Another noticeable difference is his neighbors. 

“The cool part about aviation, in general, and airparks even more so, is that everybody has some kind of common interest,” he said. “Even though we’re right in the middle of a big town, it gives [off] that small town feel. I can’t tell you how many people stop by when the hangar doors are open to check in on what you’re doing and how many friends I’ve been able to make through those conversations. And they’re not the kind of friends that are just acquaintances by name only.”

These friends also have been supportive of Coraggio’s passion for air racing, as he competes at various events under his team name of Ramp Rat Racing. 

“From the very first day that we moved in, I started working on my airplanes in the hangars before the workshops were set up,” he said. “The amount of work that we accomplished on the [Lancair] Legacy this year is what allowed us to reach all four of our [racing] goals. From February to June, which is when PRS (Pylon Racing Seminar) happens, we installed a revised electrical system architecture, new induction, new fuel injection, ignition system, some cooling enhancements, a water spray bar system, and some drag reduction.” 

Coraggio’s new neighbors helped him out with a variety of tasks in preparation for the 2023 National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada. A notable result of all that hard work in the hangar was a personal-best speed of 317.862 mph, 36 mph faster than his attempt the previous year. 

“We were going to get delayed in our project because we were missing a specific nut,” he said. “A neighbor was like, ‘Well, let me go and see if I can go find one of those.’ And he goes off to his hangar, scurries around and finds six of them so we can replace them all, instead of [just] the one that was damaged. Can I replace them for you?’ I asked. ‘Oh, no, I’ve got plenty of those.’ That kind of experience is what makes this such a great place.”

Before living at Stellar, Coraggio had kept his aircraft in three hangars at Deer Valley Airport (KDVT) in Phoenix. Now, they sit in two hangars on his Stellar Airpark property, totaling 5,000 square feet. 

He pointed out that flexibility is another positive of living at an airpark.

“[You can] choose what you have space for versus having to [find] space when you are trying to buy something,” Coraggio said. “If you’re trying to buy an airplane and can’t find a hangar, you might choose not to buy the airplane. If you live at home, you can find a way of making it work instead of having to wait 20 years for a hangar in some of the airports in the Valley.”

Even though Coraggio had previous experience living at an airpark, albeit temporarily several decades ago, there was something that amazed him about moving to Stellar Airpark.

“I think the biggest surprise to me is how little I want to leave,” he said. “And I’ve never been a morning person in my life, ever. But ever since we moved in here, I wake up at 6:30 or 7 o’clock in the morning, which some people laugh at as being morning or early morning. I’m motivated to get my day started early now because I’ve got something exciting to do that really gets my juices flowing that’s right here. If your hangar is at home, you can find a way.”

The post Passion Projects and Ramp Rat Racing at Arizona’s Stellar Airpark appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Wilkinson Ranch Airport (55WA) in Yakima, Washington, has been around since the early 1990s. Throughout much of its history, the airstrip has been primarily used by the Wilkinson family and friends. But in recent years, others have begun landing at the 2,050-foot-long asphalt runway to attend weddings and stay in one of several rental accommodations.

Landon Wilkinson, who became a pilot in 2020, provided details surrounding the airstrip’s background and what makes the land surrounding it so special.  

“My dad has been a pilot all of my life and has owned several different airplanes,” said Wilkinson. “He acquired the property in 1991, and the airstrip was put in within a short period of time after that. For a while, it was grass, then he lengthened and paved it. And it’s funny. The name of the airstrip [a sign observed from the road] says ‘Landon Strip.’ It’s technically named after me, and I was the first of my dad’s three sons to land on the runway.”

Wilkinson now flies a Mooney M20E, which he owns with his younger brother and another partner. The property’s airstrip is a central figure in many of their aerial adventures but also for those who fly in for celebrations. 

“Oakshire Estate & Airfield is a wedding venue, although it was never designed intentionally for that purpose,” said Wilkinson. “My dad has planted a couple thousand trees on the property since he bought it, and the long, tree-lined driveway is just spectacular, as is the estate in general. Every year, they are refining the property…We have had weddings there over the years, but then several years ago, they opened it up to book a limited number of weddings there each year.”

Not only can people fly into weddings, they don’t have far to go from the ramp to the dance floor. 

“We have a lot of weddings that make use of the runway, which is basically 100 feet from the venue’s front door,” he said. “We have had people fly in, where the groomsmen will come and then walk up the aisle [after getting out of the airplane]. It’s been fun to have those things working together here.”

The 30-year-old private pilot saw the success that his parents had with the wedding venue and sought to bring other equally unique offerings to the property. He started by converting a 100-year-old barn that sat derelict for many years. While an ambitious project, he had been doing renovations and house flipping since he was a kid. 

“I purchased about 50 acres from my dad, which is southeast of the same road,” he said. “The first project of ours, in 2019, was the barn conversion. The shipping container home was completed about two years ago now. We have a really good view of the Yakima Ridge and thought that it would make a really good short-term rental experience for people. So, we basically did the shipping container and the barn conversion ourselves and put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into them. But I think that they turned out pretty special.”

Both the barn and shipping container are available for short-term rental. And while Wilkinson is proud of the rentals and has received rave reviews, he admits that the airstrip is one of his favorite aspects of his family’s property. 

“So, when you’re coming into land, it’s really a one-way-in airstrip, because of these pretty tall trees around the house on the western end,” he said. “Then there’s a wind turbine and a cell tower in the vicinity, about a quarter mile north. They’re not at all really in your way, but just something to be aware of. And the runway is wider at the outset. On the eastern end, I would say it’s probably about 30 feet [wide] and then it reduces to around 25 or so feet [wide].”

Wilkinson’s time spent marketing his short-term rentals has demonstrated an issue within that industry. He believes aviators are in perhaps the greatest position to take advantage of unbooked nights on short-term notice.  

“Part of the motivation for starting [booking platform website] Hostshare had to do with being a pilot,” he said. “As pilots we are usually more at the mercy of the weather, so we are often required to have a lot of flexibility as it comes to lodging. With a lot of the short-term rentals, the cancellation policy is usually nonrefundable, or at least a portion of it. Hostshare makes it much more economical to travel last minute with your family, if you own an Airbnb. That was part of the motivation.”

Wilkinson pointed out that sharing time equally among the partners in his Mooney fortunately hasn’t been an issue yet. But the process of sharing time in the asset with others was another component of his ongoing inspiration for his new website. Several fly-in destinations are already on the platform, including Beaver Creek in Maine.

The post Wilkinson Ranch Airport Features Wedding Venue, Short-Term Rentals appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Kira Moore used her pilot certificate to find a new way of life, away from the hustle and bustle of her career as a physician in the greater Sacramento area. In July 2022, she purchased a residential property adjacent to the picturesque Shelter Cove Airport (0Q5), which overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. 

Spending time at the airport has been a great way to decompress from the demands of daily life, and she contends that other pilots will feel the same way.

“Shelter Cove Airport is in a very remote area. Off of the main U.S. 101 Freeway, you have to drive 45 minutes on a very windy road with a steep grade to get here. There isn’t much here, but the surroundings are very beautiful. The ocean is great, and there is a black sand beach that’s actually the beginning (or end) of the Lost Coast Trail. It’s not very easy to get here, but it’s worth coming.”

A journey that is difficult to get to by car is simplified by airplane. As the crow flies, Shelter Cove is 87 nm from KRDD (Redding Regional), 103 nm from KCIC (Chico Regional), and 173 nm from KSQL (San Carlos), for reference.  

“I live in Sacramento and Shelter Cove is about a five-hour drive for me. I would not want to drive there, since I can fly. There is a 3,300-foot-long [paved] runway, which is right in the middle of Shelter Cove. It’s very easy for pilots to get here, at least when the weather is nice. The airport is often fogged in and does not have any instrument approaches, fuel, or hangars. But when it’s beautiful and sunny, you can come here [easily] and don’t need a car. You can walk everywhere, any of the beaches and a few restaurants that are in the area. I’ve even seen people fly in, get out of their airplanes with fishing poles and come back a few hours later. It’s a really cool place to fly into.” 

Moore has been a pilot for seven years and first flew into Shelter Cove five years ago. She explained that she immediately fell in love with the airport. Never did she have it in her mind that she would one day have a residence there. 

“Last year, I sold my investment property that was in Sacramento and was looking for an [1031] exchange property. By luck, I found this duplex here at Shelter Cove. And even though properties are extremely expensive along the California coast[…] this area is still reasonable – probably because of how remote it is. So, I decided to buy the duplex and renovate it, as it was very run down,” she said.

“I decided to keep the property as an Airbnb because I just want to fly myself or fly with friends there. So far, I’ve had a few pilots fly in and stay here. One of the recent pilots who flew in, from Sonoma, was very impressed. Not only has he provided a great review, he let me know about this ‘Pilot friendly AirBNB’ Facebook group. This immediately interested me because I am always looking at other places that I can fly into as well.” 

Continually on the search for other fly-in accommodations, Moore highlights what makes her short-term rental properties at Shelter Cove unique. Each side of the duplex accommodates up to five guests, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. 

“There are a lot of reasons why people should come here. The runway and the parking is right in front of my property, so you can actually see your plane from the windows. Pilots always love keeping an eye on their planes. And you can see the other planes landing and taking off, as well, which is my favorite thing to do here. It’s an active airport, and sometimes on a sunny day, you can see as many as twenty planes.”

She continued, highlighting some of the things that people can do once they fly into Shelter Cove, “Whale watching is one of the other fun things to do here, and the whales migrate around September to October. It’s also a small fishing town here, and it used to actually have a commercial fishing operation at one point in time. There are several people who take others out for sport fishing. I haven’t done that yet myself but have heard that a lot of people do that and have a great time. The golf course is right around the runway, so it’s everywhere and only steps away from your plane. My property is bordered by the course, and I have golf clubs in my Airbnb for guests to use,” Moore said. 

She elaborated on other things to do in the area, noting that there are a lot of good hiking trails, as well as an art gallery featuring local artists. Four bikes are provided in each of her rental units, so pilots can enjoy cruising around town or to some of the nearby restaurants. Within a twenty-minute walk there are a number of unique spots, from coffee shops to California’s most remote brewery. 

Moore hopes that other pilots can experience the tranquility of the area and enjoy it as much as she has. “You can come here, relax, and forget about your busy life. That’s how I feel about this place. I come here and forget about my problems. The time kind of stops. It’s completely relaxing and really rejuvenating to come to Shelter Cove for a few days and recharge yourself, especially when you can fly in.” 

The post Shelter Cove Offers an Idyllic Airport Getaway appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When John Naugle of Lewisville, Texas, first stepped foot into the cockpit, he had no idea aviation would become intertwined with his career and passion—real estate. Now, only a few short years later, Naugle has become a respected member of the aviation real estate industry, focusing on representing buyers and sellers of residential airpark properties in the red-hot Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“My background is property management, and I worked in the apartment industry for a long time,” Naugle said. “Then three years back, I got licensed in real estate, and at that time I was a student pilot. But I started out just doing traditional residential real estate. Then I met a gentleman named Russ Keith, who lived right across the street from my mom. One day I was walking my dog with my wife from her house, and I noted that Russ was in his garage working on an airplane. I go, ‘What’s going on here?’ He told me that he is a pilot and is building a little two-place biplane. Lo and behold, I look over and see that he is also in real estate.” 

Naugle was surprised that his longtime neighbor was interested in the same things he was. What were the chances? The two hit it off immediately.  

“At the time, I had recently started a group called Airplanes and Coffee with Mike Roberts, who was the person who first got me into aviation,” Naugle said. “I had found out about Cars and Coffee and thought it would be great to do something similar, where a group of friends meets up at the airport once a month to hang out and talk about aviation. I invited Russ to one of these events, and the next thing I know, he’d become a well-established part of the group, and I started working for him at his company, Boomtown Brokerage.” 

Naugle finished up his private pilot training shortly after making the move to the new company. After joining forces, the two pilots decided to shift much of their daily focus to the niche industry of aviation real estate almost exclusively. 

“We have sold a lot of property out at Thompson Field (1TA7) in Canton, Texas, over 30 lots there last year and basically finished up that community,” he said. “Now we have another community that we are the exclusive team selling runway lots, Aero Village in Krum, Texas. The neighborhood, which consists of 14 homesites, is based around Bird Dog Airfield (E58).

“We have just been rocking and rolling and having a lot of fun selling airpark homes to pilots and trying to save these communities from nonpilots moving in that don’t care about the runway or aviation focus. They just want to use the hangar for cars, or whatever else. It is a huge benefit as pilots to help get other aviators into airparks.

“Not only can we travel to all of the airpark communities around quite easily, also having the same experiences as our clients is important. Some pilots really care a lot about having a paved runway; others are fine with a grass strip or even prefer one. There are so many differences in airparks around here, not to mention the differences between airparks and traditional neighborhoods. We understand the different types of fly-in communities and the homes there, which we can communicate well to our potential buyers.” 

Naugle pointed out that Texas is a great place to be involved in aviation real estate. And he said it is an exciting job for him to understand the diverse fly-in communities nearby and showcase them to others. 

“Here in North Texas, there is a huge population of not only pilots but also airparks,” he said. “We have a lot of transplants from out of state that are interested in property here. DFW is booming, and a lot of people are getting jobs around here and want to be within an hour of Dallas Fort Worth International [KDFW] or Love Field [KDAL], for example, and we do our best to help them find that right home.”

Naugle provided a brief overview of some of the airparks in the area:

Pecan Plantation (0TX1)/The Landings (66TE)

Pecan Plantation offers a unique opportunity to live in one of the most amenity-rich communities in Texas. It features a full-service clubhouse, activity center, pools, golf, tennis, marina, equestrian center, riverside parks, and access to Lake Granbury. It has two airport runways, and both airparks are in the same enormous community. The Landings is the newest section and is currently selling lots.

Airpark Dallas (F69) 

This airpark community is located in the heart of Plano, one of the most desirable cities in North Texas. World-class shopping and entertainment are just a stone’s throw away from this marvelous community. 

Eagles Nest Estates (T56)  

This is one of the most active flying communities in the entire DFW area. You can find groups of pilots flying together in formation almost daily. 

Propwash (16X) 

Between its gorgeous 3,000-by-60-foot asphalt runway and the number of warbirds that call this airpark home, this community is a local favorite.

Hidden Valley Airpark (5TX0) 

Hidden Valley Airpark is one of the premier fly-in communities in the country. This beautiful 300-acre gated-community offers families a unique landing place to call home.

Naugle advised that he has learned a lot from his business partner, Russ Keith, both about real estate and aviation. The two can routinely be seen flying in North Texas in a Cessna 172 and are always happy to lend a helping hand to those looking to capitalize on the dream of living alongside their aircraft. 

“Russ has over 30 years of real estate experience, so he has a huge following,” Naugle said. “He went from zero flight time to CFII in only 102 days. I love to harp on that because that’s pretty unique. He’s just a swell guy, and I’m really grateful to be partnered up with him.

“Being active in the aviation community is super helpful for our business. We are always at fly-ins or hosting fly-ins with Airplanes and Coffee, and are active with several different aviation groups. We also travel to Sun ’n Fun in the spring and EAA AirVenture in the summer each year. Outside of that, we regularly go to these aviation communities and are friends with the pilots there. We love what we do, so jump at the chance to go check out a new hangar home or go see someone’s new airplane. Really being completely involved with aviation is what it is all about for us and keeps us in the loop.”

Living alongside your airplane is a dream come true for many. Naugle leaves a parting thought for pilots who may be considering joining the airpark lifestyle: “Do it! The most common regret we hear from clients is how they wish they would have made the decision sooner. If you love flying and spending your time around aircraft, there is no place better to live than an airpark.”

The post Becoming an Aviation Real Estate Agent appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Martin Harris of Ocklawaha, Florida, has been an airpark resident for more than two decades.

“I’ve been flying since 1979 and began up in Vermont, learning to fly in the snow, mountains, and all the fun stuff that goes with it. I’ve flown ever since then, off and on with kids and other responsibilities. I had the opportunity for early retirement in 2001,” said Harris, recounting how a new place to live quickly followed his exit from the workforce. 

“We had friends and relatives in Florida at the time, and we thought to come down here. I really couldn’t find an airpark and bought into a gated community in Lakeland instead. But I couldn’t find a hangar anywhere nearby for my new American Champion aircraft. Then I came across the Florida guidebook of airparks and started calling. I looked at the traditional ones up this way that many have heard of. I’m kind of a blue-collar guy with a matching budget, so I couldn’t even begin thinking of buying a place in some of those communities.”

The close-knit connections within the aviation industry proved to be valuable to Harris, as a friend gave him a tip about an airpark he had not previously heard of. It proved to be the economical, grassroots community that he was looking for. 

“Well, somebody said, ‘Why don’t you try looking over in Central Florida at Woods and Lakes Airpark (FA38)?” Harris said. “It’s in the Ocala National Forest, and after navigating a bit to find it, we got to meet with the president of the community for lunch and learned it was a mix of different home types. It had a paved runway down the middle with grass on either side, and there was a faded ‘For Sale’ sign in the yard of one of the homes. It had a pole barn hangar that needed some help, but I said, ‘That’s it! There’s a place for my plane. I’m buying it!’ And it has worked out very well living here.” 

Coincidentally, the airpark was first developed the year that Harris began flying. Today, there are 42 homes that surround the 2,500-foot-long runway, with residents hailing from the United States and Canada. Harris estimated that about 30 percent of residents live at the airpark full-time and the remaining split time between the community and other locations. 

“In the mid-’70s, the developer created a rudimentary dusty landing clay strip and encouraged potential buyers to the airpark and beyond to fly in and see the properties,” Harris said. “It may be just folklore, but rumor has it some of the [NASA] astronauts flew in and had parties here. In the late ’90s, the airpark management paved the runway, making this airpark a real gem and unique to have turf and paved landing options along with lighting.

“It’s an old-fashioned, very tight community. When somebody [dies] here, often their spouse will stay here. Even if they don’t fly, they stay for the camaraderie. Over the last few years, we lost eight people to medical problems and old age. As some of the properties went up for sale, many younger—a relative term—pilots, waiting in the wings, jumped on the properties. This has created a shift in the age demographics here. We are pleased to see these young people flying more frequently and participating in our activities.”

Harris advised that the property owners association, which charges $400 per year, recently purchased a hangar that will be used as the on-site community facility for activities, meetings, and fly-ins. This is an amenity that all residents will be able to enjoy, with the goal of building neighborly relations. 

“The new folks are all nice people and love airplanes,” he said. “This infusion of new pilots to the community has been beneficial. These new faces have joined forces with the more tenured residents in ensuring a vibrant future for the airpark. We are [eager] to see the energy and ideas of the new members.” 

Marc Morel is one of the several newer residents in the community. He moved there in April. 

“I had a four-bedroom house with two floors that was just too big for me,” Morel said. “My girlfriend, who lives with me, is not an aviator. But she knew what airparks were and thought that I would probably be happier at one. Butbut all of the ones that we looked at were out of our price range. I saw my home where I’m living at now come up for sale online, and I knew [Harris] lived over here (from EAA Chapter 534), so we decided to come and take a look. I liked it so much here that I made them an offer before I left.”

Morel owns a Grumman Tiger, and he noted that his initial positive impression of the fly-in community has continued. Living at an airpark has been an enjoyable experience for him. 

“What I liked most was probably the camaraderie,” Morel said. “Before I saw the house, I went and saw [Harris], and it was the first time that I had seen his place. He gave me a tour of the airpark on his golf cart, and it was just amazing how he could name every single person on each lot here, including what they fly and their backgrounds. It’s not really a big airpark, but I was impressed that he knew everybody.

“Then it seems most days, especially in the winter, they have what’s called a ‘4 o’clock,’ where everyone gets together at someone’s hangar to socialize for an hour or so. I really liked that. Because where I came from, I had lived there for 20 years, and I couldn’t tell you the names of the people that lived next door to me. Nobody really reached out and introduced themselves there, so this was such a breath of fresh air for me.”

Visiting Woods and Lakes only a year ago was not Morel’s first time in a neighborhood shared by airplanes and pilots. He explained that his brother lives at an airpark in Georgia, and their experiences have been nearly identical.

“Let me tell you, airparks are like that,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody else, and there is really not a lot of drama or anything else, as far as I can tell. Because of how often I visit [my brother] at his airpark, I knew that Woods and Lakes would be the same way since everybody has a common interest. Nobody here lives extravagantly, you know? They’re just interested in their planes, and as long as they are able to fly in and out, they are happy. It’s not cost-prohibitive living, and you have regular people here, that’s what I like.”

The post Woods and Lakes Airpark Proves to Be a Hidden Gem appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Brittany Oligney has enjoyed a multifaceted aviation career, both in the military and as a civilian. Her first flight in a general aviation airplane was in junior high, with her uncle, who was a bush pilot in Alaska. Oligney recalled that her ambitions quickly turned skyward, and she would go on to get her private pilot certificate and instrument rating in high school. At the time, she carefully considered her career prospects and decided to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Graduating in May 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, she completed undergraduate pilot training before serving in a different capacity. After leaving the Air Force, she co-founded a military-to-airlines transition company before changing roles and working on incorporating improvements to the F-16’s radar system.  

Oligney advised, like many other aviators, that her favorite part about aviation is the people. Her ability and desire to connect with others was the catalyst for her most recent title change to “airpark developer.” 

“WT Airpark [90TT] was dreamed up by three landowners here in Waelder, Texas,” said Oligney. “These landowners owned adjacent properties that made this beautiful 300-acre tract. They are all pilots, aviation enthusiasts. My family owns a tree farm in the area, which I was visiting a few years ago. As pilots do, we were talking, and they mentioned their interest in putting in a runway. They offered me the opportunity to take the land and turn it into an airpark. It’s been my dream to live with my plane for many years. I wasn’t actually planning to build it myself, but it’s a fun bonus.”

Part of this enjoyment is because of who she is working with to create this new fly-in community, a little more than an hour’s drive from both Austin and San Antonio. 

“I don’t think I could have put together a better team if I had hand-picked them,” she said, noting that her experience thus far has been very positive. “One is a business owner who has started and grown multiple businesses. He’s been instrumental on the land development side, making sure that everything is done correctly and that this is going to be, financially and business wise, a solid project. One is a surveyor and has been doing survey work his whole life. I think he knows every blade of grass on that property, and he comes with his own [heavy] equipment. Then one is a community leader and has been for many years. So, he is very passionate about improving and growing the community.

“The combination of the team has been very effective, and I think it’s going to make the airpark really successful. We are starting with a 4,000-foot-long airstrip. I wish I could call it grass, but it was a very hot summer here in Texas, so round one of Bermuda grass has not taken very well. We will be doing a few more rounds to get the grass coming in and we will be adding lights, paving it, and putting in an approach here eventually, as well. And then we’ve also left room for a second [5,000-foot long] runway, because as cities grow, they tend to encroach and then you don’t have any space to grow. If owners want to bring in light jets in the future, that’s definitely an option.”

There has been a lot of work to get the project to where it is now. The team started with an empty piece of land, without an airstrip. 

“The airpark has been in the works for about two years. The runway was graded and developed at the beginning of 2023,” she said. “As it turns out, building a runway is not very difficult. Subdividing land, that’s a different story. That’s not difficult, per se, but it is a process. So, we’ve been working through that and making sure everything is done correctly. We’re working with the county because this is something we would like to benefit the community. We are trying to make sure they’re on board [with the development] and they like what we’re doing.”

A communal gathering spot is planned, where Oligney expects residents to come together for bonfires and cookouts. There will also be a pond and a walking trail, with other amenities possible in the future. 

“Our goal is to treat this as a phased development project,” she said. “Phase one is going to be twelve two acre lots, and then the next few phases will be another 14 lots and 16 lots. We’ve left the remaining land, which is another 100 acres or so, that we can either custom divide for people who have other ideas and want to build differently, or we will continue to subdivide. There’s room to grow, dream, build what you want to build. That’s one of the things I love about this airpark—there’s still space to do whatever you want to do. 

“When you go to buy something on an airpark that’s already developed, you get what is available, and it’s already very defined. I love the space [that we have here] and the opportunity to dream a little, to figure out what you want to do and make it happen. We’re very excited to offer that opportunity to people and to grow and develop this into a great community of aviation enthusiasts who want to create something wonderful.”

As a relative newcomer to airpark development, Oligney has leaned on her decade plus of business experience and adept networking skills to successfully get the project to where it is today. 

“I’ve talked to a few people that are starting to develop airparks because, with any big project, there are so many lessons learned as you go along,” she said. “My biggest advice would be when you start the process, get on forums and talk with other airparks because other owners or developers are very eager to share what they learned. For a lot of them, it’s too late for them to make course corrections, but they are very eager to help out others. Their help has been instrumental in getting WT Airpark going.”

Video: WT Airpark

The post Building a Dream at WT Airpark appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Cable Airport (KCCB) in Upland, California, has dubbed itself the “World’s Largest Family-Owned Public-Use Airport.” This moniker, airport officials say, comes from the number of aircraft based on the field. Presently, 245 aircraft call  the aerodrome in San Bernardino County home, according to FAA records.

The family-owned facility has withstood the test of time, spanning generations. 

“My grandfather, Dewey Cable, started this airport in 1945. So, we’ve been here for 78 years now, and I serve as its president and CEO,” Bob Cable said. “I am the third generation that is involved with the airport. We have the fourth generation working here, and the fifth generation has been born. I’ve got a cousin that’s running the maintenance facility here, another cousin that’s running the restaurant, and another one who’s in management with me here in the office. Then, his two kids are involved as well, one as a maintenance manager and the other in our financial department.

“It’s kind of an unwritten rule in the family that the minute you are old enough to solo, you will solo. So, hopefully, we will be around here for another 78 years.”

While all of the family members presently involved with the airfield grew up around aviation, Cable Airport’s founder didn’t become interested until later in his life. 

“Dewey was actually a farmer from Iowa and was working for a gentleman that bought some land out in California,” said Bob Cable. “Since my grandpa was doing such a good job, he was asked if he wanted to move out west. So, he packed up his family and moved.”

Dewey’s brother was killed in a test flight accident involving an A-20 Havoc, leading Dewey to meet Donald Douglas. The famed aircraft company founder and engineer would later go on to hire the former farmer when times grew tough and that operation ceased. 

“The rest is kind of history,” said Bob Cable. “After working at the aircraft factory, [my grandfather] got a job at a flight school at the Riverside Airport, which at the time was called Arlington Airport. Dewey soon got into an argument with the flight school owner and said, ‘You know what? I am going to start my own [flight school]!’”

Today, the airport sports a 3,863-foot-by-75-foot asphalt runway and a 65-foot-by-65-foot helipad. There is  an RNAV and VOR-A approach, fuel (100LL and jet-A), and  tiedowns. One of the most notable elements is the spirit of aviation, which the family works hard to keep as vibrant as it was during Dewey Cable’s lifetime. 

“I have more projects left than I have years left,” Bob Cable said with a laugh. “We are currently going through the planning stages with the city to build a 15,000-square-foot hangar, which will be partially utilized as a museum and event facility. When we get this facility built, we are going to try and host quarterly events that feature a basic style of airplane or era. I would love to do ‘year and genre’ type fly-ins, which I think will be a lot of fun.”

Cable explained that he could “fill the museum” with all of the antique planes that call Cable Airport home. He owns several of these unique models. 

“What I fly is a 1944 Porterfield, which is six serial numbers off of the very first plane that my grandfather flew into here in 1945,” he said. “I also have a red 1940 model, as well, and then I have a friend who has a blue 1941 Porterfield. So, we have red, white, and blue Porterfields on the field that we will fly around at different events.”

Cable and his relatives are dedicated to keeping Dewey’s legacy alive. It’s not always easy, he acknowledged, but it is worthwhile to operate the historic aerodrome.

“We still have the attitude that most of us old-timers learned how to fly, or got interested in aviation, by wandering around an airport and talking to people,” Cable said. “We are probably one of the few airports where you can park your car, walk around, socialize, and talk to people in their hangars. There are still kids here that will come out to wash airplanes in exchange for rides.

“We are really trying to keep the dream of general aviation alive through my grandfather’s eyes. It’s a passion for all of us here, because an airport doesn’t do any good with airplanes in a hangar, so we try to keep flying affordable for people. We have some of the lowest fuel prices in Southern California, and we want people to fly. My grandfather’s dream was to keep planes in the air, and that’s what we try to do here.”

The post Cable Airport Boasts Family-Owned Legacy appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Your goals for the new year may be to finally pursue an instrument rating, take a flight in a seaplane, or mentor those just beginning their aviation journey. And for many of us, another goal is to lose a few pounds and improve our ability to carry more payload in their aircraft, either by eating healthier or exercising. 

If your goal is to take up running and you are looking for some unique races, look no further than the runway. Each year, a handful of airports around the country host biped races, making a memorable setting for pilots, aviation enthusiasts, and the general public to run or walk on taxiways and/or the runway. 

• READ MORE: Registration Opens for 47th Air Race Classic

Below is a collection of these races, some with confirmed dates for 2024. There are nearly a dozen other airports that held races in 2023, pending dates for this year’s event—including the EAA AirVenture Runway 5K.

Ontario International Airport (KONT): Ontario, California

On February 4, runners can participate in the 5K at the Runway, which is followed by a one mile long family walk. When much of the country is battling through harsh winters, the weather at the Southern California city is palatable and predictable—perfect for an aviation-centric running event.

Like many other fun runs, the day is made enjoyable by more than just the race itself. Participants in the 3rd annual event also receive one-of-a-kind complimentary swag items, as well as interact with a variety of vendors, fellow racers, and airport partners (this community portion of the event does not require registration). The race also serves a benefit for a local charity, the USO at Ontario International Airport. 

Piedmont Triad International Airport (KGSO): Greensboro, North Carolina

The PTI Run on the Runway event features both 5K, 10K, and one mile options. On the morning of March 23, participants will line up before beginning their journey down Runway 5L/23R. Those who choose the 10K race will also get to run on the adjacent taxiway. All races promise unequaled views of the airfield, which serves a variety of commercial and general aviation traffic. 

The 9,000-foot-long runway (Piedmont Triad’s second longest) is 150-foot-wide, adjacent to the future home of the Boom Supersonic Supersonic Overture Superfactory. Like many of the other runway races, pets and wheeled objects are prohibited due to safety concerns, although jogging strollers are allowed at the PTI run. 

Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL): Lakeland, Florida

Pilots know the Sun n’ Fun Aerospace Expo as one of the year’s most highly anticipated airshows. But what is less known is that there is a 5K race, Sun ‘n Run, that coincides with the Aerospace Expo. In 2024, the race is being held on April 13, the next-to-last day of the annually held fly-in. 

Starting at the Terminal Ramp where the United States Air Force Thunderbirds are parked, runners are promised views of arriving and departing aircraft. The course transverses Runway 5/23 and various taxiway/ramp areas. Proceeds from the event benefit two aviation causes, the Lakeland Aero Club and the Women in Aviation Lakeland Chapter. 

Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK): Wheeling, Illinois

Aviators in the Chicagoland area may have heard of the Run the Runway at Chicago Executive Airport event before. This year, the event (5K run, 1 mile walk, and kids dash) is scheduled for June 29. This is the ninth year the races have been held at the airport. 

Following a guided stretch, the starting gun sounds at 8:00 sharp—prompting runners to take to the runway and fight for their best finishing time. The course map for 2024 will not be released until the Spring. Another to be announced detail is the benefitting organization for the race, with aviation related scholarships being entrusted in years past. 

John Glenn Columbus International Airport (KCMH): Columbus, Ohio

The John Glenn International Runway 5K Run & Walk is scheduled for September 14. Photos from 2023’s event shows the field of participants photographed with airfield maintenance equipment, the air traffic control tower, airline terminal building, NetJets’ corporate headquarters, and other notable airport points of interest in the frame. The event even had a DJ to help pump up runners. 

Proceeds from the race benefit the nonprofit organization Honor Flight Columbus, which provides senior veterans the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. On average, nearly $70,000 has been raised for this charity per race. 

Stearman Field (1K1): Benton, Kansas

The Stearman 5 Mile Race & Kids Trot is typically held in November each year. At the time of publication, a specific date has yet to be confirmed for 2024 but will be communicated on the race’s website once known. 

The starting line for the race is positioned outside the acclaimed Stearman Field Bar & Grill, where diners can watch aircraft landing at the approach end of Runway 17—only a few feet away. The five-mile course (two, two and a half mile loops) leads participants down the 5,106-foot-long paved runway at Stearman Field, a privately owned airport northeast of Wichita. A portion of the course is through the Stearman Estates neighborhood, a residential fly-in community. 

Races with Confirmed Dates in 2024

The post Airport Runway Races appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Temple Executive Air Center, a city-owned and managed FBO at Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (KTPL), opened on November 1. The new facility replaced operations that were previously housed in the adjacent Elmer Reed General Aviation Terminal. The $7.4 million dollar project was designed to help to better meet the demand at the Central Texas airport, as well as stimulate growth for the city of Temple. 

Originally called the Temple Army Air Field, the airport dates back to 1942 when it was a training base for the U.S. Army Air Forces . Following the end of World War II, it was sold to the city of Temple and renamed Draughon-Miller Airport, after two Temple aviators who died during the war. 

Andrew Hill, the manager for the recently opened FBO, said that a benefit of being a “growing but small-town airport” is the close relationship that it is able to build with airfield tenants and visitors. 

“Our motto is ‘Exceptional Service Without Exception,’ and our new customer service team, which hadn’t existed yet at the airport, has done a great job with that and are representing the TEAC brand well,” Hill said. “A highlight as we are going out to sell the FBO to the world is our geographical location. We’re centrally located between the major metropolitan areas in Texas and are a great halfway point for East to West Coast travel. And we’ll park you under the awning, which is not very common for a municipally run FBO to have an aircraft awning that will fit up to a Global Express to keep you out of the rain and the heat, which we get plenty of. We will be able to care of those cross-country transient customers and have the quickest quick turn in in style—and [have] some of the best fuel prices.”

The FBO itself has always been owned and managed by the city. And by design, Temple Executive Air Center will vary greatly from its predecessor, especially when it comes to the design of the facility and customer service philosophy.  

“We knew that with this new facility we wanted to rebrand and remarket ourselves,” Hill said. “A city-owned and operated FBO doesn’t always get good marks or recommendations from pilots. They usually think of high prices and terrible customer service. So, we followed their (and FBO consultant) advice, tweaked it a little bit, and came up with a brand-new name. We decided to market it as a separate entity from Draughon-Miller Airport, so that it has the look and feel of a privately owned FBO with great customer service and amenities,”

Although the airport has been in operation for more than 80 years, pilots will see many new investments to its infrastructure. The city of Temple explained some of the recent monetary investment in the airport and its facilities. 

“In the last five years, the airport has completed a $1.2 million taxiway refurbishment to allow better aircraft access to existing hangars and areas of improved land for development, completed $1.9 million on transitioning airfield lighting to LED, $2.9 million on providing eight shovel-ready plots for future corporate hangars, and currently have a $600,000-plys project to revitalize various ramp areas and repaint our main runway 16/34,” the city said in a press release. “We also currently have a $3 million dollar project in the design phase to realign taxiway D crossing at the approach of Runway 03, while extending that runway 500 [feet], a plan to use our IIJA grant money ($1.2 million) by [fiscal year 2026] to extend a taxiway to create aircraft access to future development area, and finally a future plan to extend the aircraft parking ramp for aircraft parking.”

Sean Parker, the airport’s manager, added additional detail, explaining that the recent changes have been planned for some time. 

“Prior to my arrival in 2019, the city realized that the current FBO, which originally was built in 1956, [had been] updated as well as expanded some in 2002,” Parker said. “The Temple Economic Development Corporation has been doing a fantastic job on bringing some Fortune 500 companies to our area, and they understand the need to cater a little bit better to these folks that are either visiting their businesses here in Central Texas or coming here to look at possibly moving part of their company or expanding here.”

According to the city of Temple, operations have grown by 35 percent since 2019, and 40 percent of fuel sales in 2023 have come from transient traffic. The airport authority is looking toward the future and senses a continued interest from transient and based aircraft, as well as anticipating an influx of on-field development. Of the airport’s 922 acres, there is more than 50 acres of improved land with access to water, sewer, power, and connection to paved surfaces, as well as more than 200 acres of unimproved land. 

The airport’s 73 T-hangars are presently fully leased, which Hill noted is “a marker of people’s desire to be at our airport. We’re here to support that and love to see the growth and development that’s coming.”

Parker echoed Hill’s excitement about the prospects for the facility.

“As far as private, corporate, and commercial hangars, we probably have I’d say around 200,000 square feet,” said Parker We have two large commercial hangars that both themselves are just under 100,000 square feet. But everything is full. Everybody helps us out with our long T-hangar waitlist and other waitlists by subleasing to other folks to help out with that and get more airplanes inside hangars. We are currently working with some property companies that are interested in possibly building more T-hangars.

“And, of course, we’ve got various people that we’re working with in different stages of building more hangars here, both corporate and private.”

The post New FBO Opens in Central Texas appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial and have had this techy side of me, with absolutely no background in tech whatsoever. The inspiration for Hangar Direct was that about a year and a half ago I was in Minnesota, flying as a contractor. I got to my destination, pulled out my phone, and what do you know? There was a massive storm that was going to hit Minneapolis in an hour and half. Well, what do you do? You need a hangar,” said Trenton Ray, founder of Hangar Direct, an online platform that connects hangar owners with those looking for hangar space.   

Ray explained that finding transient hangar space, especially on short notice, requires a lot of phone calls and an equal amount of luck.

“You just pick up the phone and start dialing,” said Ray. “It’s the same thing every time. It’s, ‘Oh, we will get back with you,’ or ‘I need to speak to the manager.’ You never get an answer. But this time I finally got an answer from a [woman] at the FBO, who said they could do it [give us hangar space] for $1,000 per night.”

The price made him think that there was opportunity to infuse the marketplace with additional short-term, covered aircraft storage space. As a corporate pilot, Ray said it happens at least once a year where he needs to get an overnight hangar for his client—regardless of the cost. Even with open space hidden at airports across the country, hangar owners that are able to sublease their spaces don’t have an easy avenue to become connected with interested parties, according to Ray. 

“You hear about crazy hangar wait lists all over, but the marketplace for them is Facebook, of all things!” said Ray. “So, I finally said, ‘This is it,’ and I set out to create Hangar Direct. One of my really good friends, Tanner Embry, who is also 28 years old like me, is a super-talented software developer. I came to him and said that I don’t know jack about tech and that he didn’t know jack about aviation but thought that we could do this. And it has worked. We have a team of developers and have been writing code for almost a year and a half.”

Ray provided further detail about Hangar Direct and its mission. 

“Hangar Direct is a transient hangar platform that runs and operates very similarly to Airbnb,” he said. “It has the same breakdown [of categories] and has a Google Maps API that is very similar to other sites. The website is fully operational and free to use, with apps coming soon for both iPhone and Android. We have tried to comb in every ounce of negativity and provide solutions. For example, all transactions use Stripe, so it’s safe and secure.

“And it’s really simple to upload your hangar for others to see. You list the location on the map, note the price, upload five photos, and a few additional details—such as size and entry method. If you are worried about insurance, we will list you as additionally insured and are currently finalizing our insurance. Hangar Direct offers 24/7 customer support as well as a chat function allowing users to communicate with each other regarding their reservation.”

The feedback Ray has received about the platform thus far has been positive. He contends that typically aviation is a late adopter of technology, and Hangar Direct fills a gap in the aviation real estate market. 

“Whenever I talk to people about this cool tool we are going to release, they are always impressed,” he said. “I think a lot of that comes down to [the fact] that everything in aviation happens last, technology specifically. We are currently in beta [test] and have been onboarding new users since September 1. To date, over 200 people signed up to use the app and over 500 on our list to receive updates as they become available. Everybody is really excited about Hangar Direct. We could launch this officially to the market tomorrow. But we are really trying to make sure that this whole thing is buttoned up, that we’ve talked to the right people, and we have partnered with the correct organizations.” 

The growing list of official partners includes FlytoPlaces, Airplanes & Coffee, Boomtown Brokerage, and FlightBridge, which was most recently added to the list. FlightBridge is used by more than 4,000 aircraft operators and 3,000 FBOs to arrange and manage trip logistics. Ray hinted that Cutter Aviation (GTU) will soon be announced as the official FBO launch partner for the software. 

Hangar Direct’s method of attracting users thus far has mainly been through word of mouth, as well as Ray personally building relationships with airports and hangar owners. One of the first airport relationships he sought was his local airfield—Georgetown Executive Airport (GTU) in Texas just north of Austin. The platform’s short-term leasing methodology is a new way of thinking for many airports. 

“Some private and municipal airports don’t allow subleasing,” he said. “[And] they will not approve the addition and construction of more hangars. We found a way that benefits everyone. We’ve recently started working with multiple city and county officials and have learned that a majority of these municipalities are open to the idea of short-term leasing (less than a month). Hangar Direct gives airports and hangar owners a hands-off tool to conveniently operate and benefit from the transient traffic that rents their hangars.

“Georgetown Executive Airport has agreed to incorporate the idea and will become Hangar Direct’s first municipal airport to adopt our platform in hopes of alleviating their hangar occupancy issues. Matthew [Sommerfeld], the new airport manager, is [really] open to trying new things and realizes that there is a hangar space issue not only at GTU, but all over. We are speaking with a few more [airports] that we are hopeful of officially announcing in the next few weeks.”

Ray is extremely optimistic for the future of his platform and how it can help to alleviate the national need for hangar space. 

“We understand that there is a lot of change that can be made,” he said. “The reality of it is that all of this is very possible, but there is a ton of red tape. I say that because we initially wanted to go after FBOs because I work full time in business aviation. The [GA] community is kind of a losing battle for many FBOs, as they make most of their [money] on big jets and jet fuel. We are a community product, but at the end of the day, I am involved in corporate aviation, and I would like to work our product into that market. Hangar Direct can grow in a heartbeat. It’s all just a matter of establishing a footprint in general aviation first.”

The post Hangar Direct Provides Options for Aircraft Seeking Temporary Shelter appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The trajectory of Crawford County, Illinois, and its nearly 20,000 residents, was forever changed on March 31. At 10 that evening, an EF3 tornado ripped through the town and caused millions of dollars in damage. 

Three lives were lost in the storm and many more were injured. Reports also stated that several hundred structures were toppled by the tornado. Its path of destruction included one of the region’s most important assets—Crawford County Airport (KRSV), whose infrastructure will be changed for years to come.

Vicki May, a board member and secretary for the Crawford County Airport Authority, explained the impact the storm had on the airport.

“Here with me right now are four of us,” May said. “We have Jeff Boyd, my husband, who lost his plane in the storm. Then we have Howard Hunt and Sandy Staszak, who run the FBO on the field. They lost their business, planes, everything. So, they are trying to get their business back, the airport authority has been trying to get the airport back, and our pilots are trying to get some kind of plane back. 

“The tornado completely destroyed the airport, as you can see in pictures. We had two large maintenance hangars, 18 (spaces) T-hangars, and 19 planes that were here for various reasons—whether based here or being worked on. I think every single one of the planes was totaled, along with the hangars that I mentioned and multiple vehicles, including our maintenance vehicles and courtesy cars. Most of us were insured for a prop strike, taxiing into a light, or something like that—not to lose everything—everything. I said it when the TV station came out to interview me, [and] it’s true. There is a lot of heartbreak out here.” 

The carnage was so bad that everything was leveled, including the airport office. Formerly a stout building made of concrete blocks, May said that there weren’t two that were left mortared together. Volunteers were quick to get started on cleaning up the destruction, including removing balled up T-hangars and airplanes from adjacent fields. Even with the many hands, it took several weeks to pick up the pieces of the airport that were scattered about.

“We are insured like everybody else, although we are not getting enough to put back everything the way that it was—much less make it better,” May said. “We want to be better than before, but we have to find the money to do that. The insurance company is going to give us money to replace what was here, and we can’t even totally do that. So, we are out looking for grants, maybe even some loans, or the possibility of issuing bonds. We did have some money saved up, but that will go pretty quick, and we have to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money.”  

Not ruminating on their losses for too long, airport stakeholders enthusiastically began working to bring the airport back to what it was before. It has a bright future, they said—especially considering its impact upon local industry and the nearby hospital. 

“We already had several projects that we were working on right before the tornado,” May said. “We had just built a brand-new pole barn to store all of our tractors and other equipment. Of course, that’s gone now. Then there is a government program to renovate older terminal buildings, which we were actually going to apply to be a part of and remodel our office to be more functional. Now we have to build one from scratch. Ironically, the T-hangars were fairly new, because they had been hit by a tornado a few years ago. 

“We are currently pouring concrete for construction of one large maintenance hangar and for the replacement T-hangars. Most of the steel has been delivered. We hope to have them completed this year. We have applied for state and federal funding to rebuild the terminal building with offices, classrooms, and a storm shelter. I want to add [that] the FAA has been very involved and helpful in trying to get us some grant money to get back on our feet.”

The airport has not gotten fuel services back, being that the testing to return the system to service has been a lengthy process. But operations are starting to pick back up.

“The air traffic to industries, the hospital, etc. has ramped back up,” May saud. “Local traffic is still very sparse since we went from many airplanes based here to [currently] one, and it has to sit outside. We believe once we have hangars built, we’ll start to see more planes and local traffic. Once we can provide fuel, we’ll see more planes stopping for refueling. Once the FBO has a maintenance hangar again, we’ll start to see planes coming and going for maintenance and repairs.”

Those who were based at the airport have shown their resiliency. The list of local pilots who were impacted by the storm included a May high school graduate, Jared Hermann. The tornado blew through only three hours before Hermann was scheduled to take his private pilot check ride. His airport being leveled was only a minor inconvenience, as he would go on to pass his check ride only a few short months later in July.

“The tornado brought my training to a complete halt,” Hermann said. “I was training in Howard and Sandy’s [flight school] at the time, which was lost in the tornado. It took a while for things to calm down, but I stayed patient while evaluating my options on how to continue my flight training. While I was trying to find another airplane to fly, I concentrated on my ground school training. Since we couldn’t find a good airplane to rent in the area, my father (Mark) and I purchased an airplane so that I could finish my flight training.”

Hermann advised that he is pursuing a career in aviation as an airline pilot. He is presently enrolled at Southern Illinois University in its aviation program and comes back to Crawford County Airport as much as he can to build time in he and his dad’s Piper PA-28-140.  

The post Rebuilding Crawford County Airport appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

According to a recent count by the St. Louis Airport Authority, there were 155 parties waiting for a covered spot to store their aircraft at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS) in Chesterfield, Missouri. This delta between supply and demand is something that Alex Martin and his family experienced firsthand.

Several years ago, the Martins began considering the purchase of a larger family hauler, which wouldn’t fit in the T-hangar where they had long kept their Cessna 182. Their inability to find adequate hangar space was the inspiration for Spirit Sky Club, an in-development luxury 28 hangar facility at the northern portion of the field—near Runway 26R. 

“Being around Spirit, we got to know the directors, John Bales [director of aviation] and Dave Schubert [deputy director of aviation], very well and that was the first place we looked for hangar space,” said Alex Martin. “We were talking to them one day, and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, the waitlist is a little bit long here. We’re happy to put you on it, but if you want to get that plane within the next couple of years, I would look elsewhere.’ We called up nearby airports and found the same problem at each of them. That was kind of the first green light that went up in our heads.”

Martin said he and his father, Douglas, both enjoy solving problems. They started diligently researching ways to meet the apparent demand back in January. 

“We’re a family of entrepreneurs, and we started doing research on the hangar landscape across the country to really put it in perspective,” Martin said. “Is this just a St. Louis problem, or is this a national problem? There were two major things that stuck out. One is that plane ownership struck a chord over COVID. Private air travel is up anywhere from 10 to 20 percent relative to pre-pandemic levels. Then on the supply side, COVID backed up supply chains everywhere. Hangar development as well stopped during this time and has really yet to fully come back. These two signals, mixed with our personal experience of needing a hangar, were the catalyst for Spirit Sky Club.” 

These box hangars will be quite a bit different from those at airports in the greater metro area. 

“The model we’re really after here is more of a country club type of model—a community of enthusiasts around a certain hobby,” Martin said. “With how many aviators reside in St. Louis, you would think that there would be more of a natural community element at many hangars, but there’s not. With weekend events, charity galas, and world-class amenities, we aim to change that.

“This is built for the owner/operators. If you’re hiring a pilot, not passionate about aviation, or simply using your plane as just a line item on your company’s budget, this probably isn’t for you. It’s more for the people that really, really care about the community around aviation, being around other pilots, and enjoy talking about aviation. This whole development is designed by pilots, for pilots. We went after the development with a design first approach, accounting for things that are important to aviators.”

The Martins are joined in this development by the Alms, another father-son duo who are also residents of the area with long-standing roots in aviation. Kevin Alm is a business executive and his son Griffin is a recently minted instrument pilot working on his commercial certificate. Martin said that the foursome leaned on their own experiences as existing hangar tenants of the airport and were mindful of what others would want in new spaces. That included elements such as adequate and convenient electrical outlets, high-speed internet, insulation and heat, air conditioning, 24/7 security, remote-controlled tugs, and even a private bathroom (depending on the type selected). 

There will be three hangar suite options available for lease— shared, standard , or fully customizable deluxe suites. Each box hangar is 62 feet wide by 56 feet deep but has varying door heights and amenity levels. Self-service fuel will be available on-site, as well as line services through a partner FBO. The group is expecting to break ground in January 2024, with the first phase of development sitting on roughly 7 acres of land. 

Pat McLaughlin, a fellow entrepreneur, has also been an integral part of the development, according to Martin. 

“Pat shares the same vision for us to make St. Louis, even more so Spirit, a general aviation hub in the Midwest throughout the coming decades,” Martin said. “He has been a great advocate for our project and is working here with us to plan a second phase, which would include things like aviation services and additional hangar space.”

McLaughlin explained that his company, Mistwood Aviation, an exclusively Cirrus service and training center, will have space in the tentative second phase. When Mistwood was founded in 2016, McLaughlin had hoped to build a new hangar facility at the airport. But doing so wasn’t financially viable for the fledgling firm, but he kept the thought in the back of his mind ever since. 

“I got real serious [about wanting to build hangars again,] and I started talking to the airport director,” said McLaughlin. “He said, ‘By the way, there is another group that’s looking at doing this. But go ahead and put your project together and see what you can do, because I don’t know if they’re committed or not.’ About two weeks later, I walked into his office with my plan in hand and he goes, ‘These guys are going to move forward, and I’ll introduce you to them.’”

Mistwood Aviation will be a flagship tenant of Spirit Sky Club, where they will have an expanded showroom. This space will not only be a gathering point for potential airplane buyers, but it will also host the company’s aircraft used for pilot training.  

“The other piece of it that I’m hoping to do is there’s a restaurant/brewery idea,” McLaughlin said. “I wouldn’t say that this idea is concrete, but it is more than 50 percent [likelihood of happening]. I’ve been to quite a few different places that I’m modeling this off. The closest one to us is Thaden Field in Bentonville [Arkansas (KVBT)], which is a beautiful facility. If I could draw it up, I would do it exactly like they have where they have the hangar with the clubhouse up top. They have areas for people to come in and see planes take off and land—in addition to the fact that there is a more private members-only space, and it’s all attached to a hangar, so you can use it as an event space.”

The interest in this new offering at the airport has been “phenomenal” thus far, according to Martin. Only four weeks after announcing the project to the public, he said that they had nearly pre-booked every available space in the first phase. 

“The airport has been extremely helpful,” Martin said. “I like to think of them as a partner as well, just because they are as incentivized as we are to make this project a success. From their perspective, they recognize that this is a need and that this would increase the demand for their airport, increase the benefits that they can offer to the city, etc. 

“They have been doing everything they can to incentivize us to go through with this project, to help us with the permitting of this project, all sorts of stuff. They’ve also been a great partner as we’ve been navigating the actual legalities with the city and the legalities with the FAA of doing this project.”

The St. Louis Airport Authority mirrored his enthusiasm for the development and on-field opportunities. 

“Spirit of St. Louis Airport is a first-class, business-friendly airport that works closely with its tenants,” said John Bales, the authority’s director of aviation. “The airport will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2024 continues to grow and is perfectly situated in the prospering west St. Louis County. We are very excited to partner with the developer and welcome the investment. They are going to bring a very exciting and unique hangar complex.”

The post Spirit Sky Club Looks to Establish Community-Focused Hangar Space appeared first on FLYING Magazine.