Tower at grass-only field?

jmaynard

jmaynard

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Jay Maynard
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Some towered airports have grass runways (for example, KMIC, Crystal Muni in the Twin Cities area). Are there any all-grass airports with towers?
 
Thread hijack:
Another nice towered field with both grass and sealed runways is Christchurch, NZ! I remember coming in there, Leslie flying the 172, and they cleared us for the grass strip. We requested the sealed runway. Not because we couldn't land on grass; we'd been doing that for a week. But we had International Gate 25 at the terminal in our 172! It was kind of neat looking over at the next gate and seeing a Boeing 747 sitting there!:yes:

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=75&c=6
 
How in the world did you wind up with a gate at a major international airport with a 172??!
 
jmaynard said:
Some towered airports have grass runways (for example, KMIC, Crystal Muni in the Twin Cities area). Are there any all-grass airports with towers?
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Jay,

I tried my google-fu, but for some reason was foiled. I started with this search string:

site:airnav.com +"Control tower: yes" -concrete -asphalt

I got no matches, but even just removing the concrete and asphalt limitations netted no matches. The problem? Airnav uses a table to align things, so from a computer's perspective, "Control tower:" and "yes" aren't next to each other. Crap.

I also noticed that airnav uses all caps for tower frequencies, but Google isn't case sensitive, so pages with "Control tower: no" would still match a search for "TOWER". I thought there was a way to make Google case sensitive, but apparently not.

Steve has stronger google-fu than I, maybe he can figure it out. :dunno:
 
Does gravel count? 2CB has a tower and gravel surfaces.

I'll keep looking for grass only.

Kent - I started with your search terms, but modified them a bit. I'm now searching on:

site:airnav.com +"Control tower:" +"yes" -concrete -asphalt -pem -"pierced steel planking" -water -gravel

Unfortunately, a human will have to interpret the results... since "yes" can be present for things like wind indicator, segmented circle, landing fees, etc. But, as usual, I've got some time to kill at work... so I'll keep looking.

Edit - Google turns up 43 pages of search results for the search terms above... none of which have a control tower. So, unless somebody has another idea... I'm going to go with NO as the answer to the original question.
 
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Alas my Excel-Fu is strong. I found one towered field with no paved (Asphalt or Concrete) runways. It is a dirt only military field with a Control tower in FL.

and the winner is....

2CB
 
vontresc said:
Alas my Excel-Fu is strong. I found one towered field with no paved (Asphalt or Concrete) runways. It is a dirt only military field with a Control tower in FL.

and the winner is....

2CB
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I got you by about an hour and 15 minutes. :yes:
 
Well......details :-)

Im my searching the FAA 5010 data I came upon a runway type of PEM. What the heck is that?????
 
jmaynard said:
How in the world did you wind up with a gate at a major international airport with a 172??!
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The guy we were flying with (Matt McCaughan from http://www.flyinn.co.nz) knew someone at Air New Zealand, and Leslie and I were going to be leaving on a commercial flight out of Christchurch, so it made it a lot more convenient for us. They're actually allowed to use their cell phones in the air there, so he called in flight to make arrangements! BTW, Flyinn New Zealand was really great, and I heartily recommend it!
 
Can't think of any towered grass-only fields offhand, but before the systematic destruction of airports ("paving") of airports here in MN, we used to have a grass-only international airport...one end in MN, the other in Canada, customs at both ends.

Fly safe!

David
 
MauleSkinner said:
Can't think of any towered grass-only fields offhand, but before the systematic destruction of airports ("paving") of airports here in MN, we used to have a grass-only international airport...one end in MN, the other in Canada, customs at both ends.
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There's one of those in Montana...we landed there for customs several years ago.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/7S8
 
MauleSkinner said:
Can't think of any towered grass-only fields offhand, but before the systematic destruction of airports ("paving") of airports here in MN, we used to have a grass-only international airport...one end in MN, the other in Canada, customs at both ends.
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Really? Nifty! You could land at that airport and clear customs either way. Which one was it? Does it still straddle the border, just with asphalt? I've seen a few right on the border on the chart (to the point that the pattern would cross it), but haven't looked to that level of detail.
 
jmaynard said:
Really? Nifty! You could land at that airport and clear customs either way. Which one was it? Does it still straddle the border, just with asphalt? I've seen a few right on the border on the chart (to the point that the pattern would cross it), but haven't looked to that level of detail.
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Yup...still there...Piney Pinecreek Border, 48Y.

Notes: NW portion of ry in Canada; customs office adj 218/463-1952, $25.00 is a charge by customs for acft entering USA, one time only; US and Canada customs monitor 122.8 Camping on FieldAirline Svc
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Grey Field at Fort Lewis, is grass and controled by the tower at McCord AFB.

Name an airport that is an international airport with a huge hard runway, customs, a grass field, a float pond. and shares airspace with 2 other airports.
 
NC19143 said:
Name an airport that is an international airport with a huge hard runway, customs, a grass field, a float pond. and shares airspace with 2 other airports.
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Do you have any idea what that Google search would look like?!? :eek:

I don't.
 
jmaynard said:
Really? Nifty! You could land at that airport and clear customs either way. Which one was it? Does it still straddle the border, just with asphalt? I've seen a few right on the border on the chart (to the point that the pattern would cross it), but haven't looked to that level of detail.
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S28 is another - don't recall which side of the border the runway is on, but you can taxi to either the U.S. or Canadian side.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Anchorage?
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Probably what he meant, though I don't see that Anchorage has a grass strip, at least according to Airnav. PANC (Ted Stevens -- 3 sealed runways), Z41 (Lake Hood Strip -- gravel), and PALH (Lake Hood seaplane base) are pretty much colocated, but are considered separate airports.
 
gprellwitz said:
Probably what he meant, though I don't see that Anchorage has a grass strip, at least according to Airnav. PANC (Ted Stevens -- 3 sealed runways), Z41 (Lake Hood Strip -- gravel), and PALH (Lake Hood seaplane base) are pretty much colocated, but are considered separate airports.
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Having just returned from ANC, I wondered the same thing. I wasn't aware of a grass strip there but figured I might have missed it. And, as you say, PALH is a separate airport.

I think there are five airports in a row up there: ANC, ALH, Merrill, the Air Force field and the Army field.
 
grass? gravel ? just because grass won't grow what's the difference?
 
NC19143 said:
grass? gravel ? just because grass won't grow what's the difference?
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I understand that some of the "gravel" at AK fields are stones the size of softballs! Wouldn't want to try that in the 210!:no:
 
gprellwitz said:
I understand that some of the "gravel" at AK fields are stones the size of softballs! Wouldn't want to try that in the 210!:no:
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Most of the gravel runways are shale type of stone, not the river rock you find down here.
 
I like Fairbanks' layout! :)
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What? I don't think so! I have transitioned Gray AAF many times and it is paved and has its own control tower.

NC19143 said:
Grey Field at Fort Lewis, is grass and controled by the tower at McCord AFB.

Name an airport that is an international airport with a huge hard runway, customs, a grass field, a float pond. and shares airspace with 2 other airports.
Click to expand...
 
NC19143 said:
Grey Field at Fort Lewis, is grass and controled by the tower at McCord AFB.

Name an airport that is an international airport with a huge hard runway, customs, a grass field, a float pond. and shares airspace with 2 other airports.
Click to expand...

PHNL (Honolulu intl) meets all of that except the grass strip. I suppose the closest you will get is Fairbanks.
 
Wings for Christ International Flight Academy ( http://www.airnav.com/airport/73F ) in Waco, TX is a grass runway only a couple miles next to TSTC's (KCNW) runway, and deep inside their class D airspace. 73F doesn't have a tower itself, but they must talk to KCNW's tower.
 
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