Airport comments by @animebirder

Comments 1 to 50 of 162

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STOL or R/C?

400 ft runway? Woof. That's a short field!

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re: Mokpo Airport

Reply to @TIBC1: We keep it as an open airport, but toggle it as not having commercial services.

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Still an aviation facility

Heliports count!

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Is this actually still open?

It's still listed on AirNav, but there's a golf practice and training facility that's basically cut it in half.

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Open 1976-2014

It is very weird to make DoorDash deliveries in a samey, bland neighborhood that used to be a thriving grass airfield.

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Long gone but ...

There are still visibility markers up on the power lines along Crystal Falls Parkway aligned with the south approach of this former grass strip in 2024!

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Aggieland's Best

If you're gonna get a "hundred dollar burger", hard to beat Gate 12 Bar and Grill, which has unobstructed window seating for planespotters. Last time I was here (before COVID), the waitstaff showed me their photos of an L-39 that popped through here -- USAF and USN military trainers (T-6, T-38, T-44, T-45) are a very common sight here and much easier to see and photograph than in Austin.

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Duplicate heading?

This might just be Scotia Airport which doesn't show up on the topos ...

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More aviation history about to be "redeveleoped"

This airport closed in November 2022 and is slated to be turned into a residential development. What a waste.

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re: A Great Addition To Western Leyte Air Commuters

While devastated by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda and a subsequent 2017 earthquake, Ormoc Airport has since been rebuilt, with a new passenger terminal opened in 2019.

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Offshore oddball

Has a Dutch ICAO code, but is in the Belgian EEZ.

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Previous note applies to NL-0041

See subject line. This airfield is the currently active field and now has an ICAO code.

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re: Closing all operations

As of 2023, the airfield is still visible, but largely covered by solar panels. That would be a very expensive emergency landing now.

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Future Chennault Field

This is the original 1970s crop dusting airport whose footprint would later be reused as the basis for 2020s Chennault Field.

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re: Reported as (temporarily) closed

Reply to @david: Reopened in 2018 but only for military use, which seems to remain the case in 2023.

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As of 2023

The cleared area at the south end of the runway trace is clearly a soccer field.

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Active 1922-1963

Namesake of the "Aerodrom" area, this first airport for Skopje was in use from 1922 until the day of the Skopje earthquake, 26 Jul 1963, when it and 80% of the city of Skopje were destroyed.

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Claims to fame (infamy?)

Site of the 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster which killed 72 spectators, 3 pilots, and injured hundreds more people. This disaster was in turn the namesake of the heavy metal band Rammstein.

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re: Appears closed

Reply to @david: and white closed-runway Xs!

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Repurposed

Currently "Modell Fesselflug Anlage Hard" (tethered model aircraft field)

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re: To be reopened by 2023

Reply to @animebirder: The new airport will be constructed on the sit of former Mifoit Air Base.

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re: Uninhabited island

Reply to @david: The complication here is that listing this as "France" defaults it to being in Europe, which geographically, it absolutely clearly isn't! Unfortunately, unlike every other French possession, it lacks its own jurisdictional codes ... for now.

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Heliport oddity!

Evidently a heliport aboard a stationary boat (the Commandant Fourcault) which has an ICAO code?!?

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Temporary heliport

In use primarily for the World Economic Forum.

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Active air force base...

... but inactive aviation facilities.

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Repurposed duplicate heading

Repurposed duplicate to cover a different aviation facility in central Texas.

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re: 1999 Kosovo peace agreement signed here

Reply to @david: It's pretty rough-looking, but the airfield is still in use by rugged GA aircraft.

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Aviation Museum

While still an active air base, this is also home to Kbely Aviation Museum, one of the largest of its kind in the world, featuring hundreds of airframes ranging from WWI to the present day, many one-of-a-kind or rare. Many of the outdoor airframes are readily visible from this website by zooming in on the north side of the airfield complex on satellite view.

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re: DO NOT LAND HERE

It's generally never a good idea to land on any private airstrip without advance notice or permission except in cases of dire emergency. All headings and information here should be considered to be for informational purposes only, and contact information for owners of private airstrips may not even be publicly available depending on jurisdiction.

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Mystery solved

Posted address on FAA and AirNav is incorrect, Western Surgery Center is adjacent to Cache Valley Hospital in North Logan.

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re: Name of the airport.

Iwo Jima originates from an English language misreading of the Japanese η‘«ι»„ε³Ά Iōtō ("Sulfur Island") as "iwo shima" prior to World War II. This name has been immortalized in name of the battle fought here in 1945, but the proper and official name of the island is indeed Iōtō (or in older transliterations "Iwo To" or "Iwautau") with "Iojima" being a persistent but incorrect reading that is protested by the descendants of the people who lived here before evacuation during the war (and the subsequent and continuing use of the island as an air base).

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Mystery solved

The FAA and AirNav coordinates placed this incorrectly well to the north, but a chance spot of N7802K (private Cessna 180J Skywagon) observed taking off from there on 17 Feb 2023 finally solved this mystery

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Duplicate

Turns out this is the actual location of TA55 Del Valle, whose FAA coordinates were way too far north.

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Infamy

Once used for drug smuggling by the so-called "Columbus Air Force".

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Emergency use airfield.

While CGAS Casco Cove closed in 2010, runway 2/20 remains available for emergency use as of 2023 per AirNAV.

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Former N/S farm airstrip ...

Now long since overshadowed by the massive Michael Heizer art installation, "City", which is many times larger than this airstrip ever was.

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re: (no subject)

Reply to @JitendraPS: Wrong Alexandria, that's Borg El Arab International Airport serving Alexandria, Egypt, and this is Alexandria Airport which is a small rural airport serving Alexandria, Indiana, USA. Please be aware there are many localities in the world with duplicated names.

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Fatal accident 16 Mar 2023

A Shark.Aero Shark stalled and crashed here after a missed approach / aborted landing, killing two. Reference: ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 309293

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Not a typo

While autocorrect and my own instincts tell me this should be "Remembrance", this is indeed the spelling used in AirNav, AOPA, and all other sources.

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Provisional name for unnamed airstrip

N7802K (private Cessna 180J Skywagon) was observed taking off from this previously unlisted and unnamed airstrip on 17 Feb 2023.

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Confirmed closed 2000

https://airport1111.blog.ss-blog.jp/moriyaeast-airfield

Per this excellent Japanese airfield blog, Moriya (MFOC) Airfield was closed in 2020 due to damage from the previous year's Typhoon No 19.

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Article from Asahi (2019)

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASM5Q6QSMM5QUJHB00W.html

to paraphrase:

Moriya (Ultralight) Airstrip was evidently founded in 1985 on the floodplain of the Tone River, on land leased from private owners. Primary users were the Moriya Flying Users Club (about 40 general aviation enthusiasts), as well as helicopter operators Asahi Koyo and Japan Flight Safety for training purposes. However, the land was purchased from the previous owners by the Tone River Office (Kuki, Saitama) for use as a flood easement - Inatoi Reservoir (which is now visible adjacent to the remaining N-S runway).

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Former YFZ Ranch (FLDS)

This dirt airstrip serves ETG Ranch (aka Eldorado Training Grounds), a military and law enforcement training facility on the former YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch owned and operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) polygamist sect. This is newer aviation facility that did not exist during the YFZ era.

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Yeti Airlines Flight 691

Just 15 days into the operation of the new airport, Yeti Airlines Flight 691 inbound from Kathmandu, operating an ATR 72, went down along the Seti River between here and the old airport with all hands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeti_Airlines_Flight_691

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re: Airport?!

The clearing just north of that field looks like a more deliberate runway but appears fiercely overgrown. How odd.

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A rare 10000+ ft runway in Central Africa

This airport was built to serve the hometown of then-Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who had a palace here and would charter an Air France Concorde so his family could go shopping in Paris. Yes, you read that correctly.

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Converted to heliport.

Recent satellite imagery has the main runway 10/28 covered in prefab housing, as indicated in the current AirNav entry (closed indefinitely). The former apron has a heliport indicator and appears to remain in use.

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Split between two Governorates

Part of this facility is in Suez Governorate, but most of it lies in Ismailia Governorate.

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Re: Placename Translation

Putting these name convention notes here in lieu of a wiki.

Best practices when listing placenames and names of airports that are based on location are to leave those place names listed in the original language (for example, Puerto Vallarta and not "Port Vallarta", Ras Sedr and not "Cape Sedr", Kuala Lumpur and certainly not "Muddy Confluence").

Military ranks and titles used in the names of airports should be translated where feasible (ie. Colonel rather than Coronel, Marshal and not Marechal etc, but preserve culturally distinctive titles such as Chhatrapati or Shahid). Likewise, the words for airport, heliport, etc. should always be translated and written out (ie. "matar, kuukou, aerodromio, flyplats" etc should be translated); likewise, words like hospital, factory, etc should be translated unless the word is a brand name and familiar in English.

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Visible in newer maps

Not visible in sat maps prior to 2022, newer sat maps show a three-slot heliport in this location adjacent to a new factory for Elsewedy Electric.