Academy Airfield
From USAFA Folklore
The Academy has one airfield, ICAO KAFF, located in the southeast corner of the reservation on the site of the old Pine Valley Airfield. It is the busiest day-VFR-only airfield in the world. There is no runway lighting and no published instrument approaches, therefore by Air Force regulations the airfield is only open during the day.
[edit] History
When the airfield was constructed, the existing runway was shifted about 10 degrees counterclockwise. Part of the old runway became a road, and a dirt strip running from I-25, through the road, past the Kettle Lakes, and all the way to the South Gate shows where the old Pine Valley strip used to be.
The airfield is home to the 94th, 98th, and 557th Flying Training Squadrons. Until 2004, all of these were members of the 34th Operations Group, 34th Training Wing. In 2004, the squadrons realigned under the 306th Flying Training Group, 19th Air Force, Air Education and Training Command. The shift to AETC represented a formalization of the soaring, parachuting, and IFT syllabuses.
The airfield has undergone extensive renovation and upgrading in recent years. In the 1980s (verification needed), a fourth runway was added (16R/34L), dedicated to soaring operations. In 2004, a new tower and training complex was constructed at midfield, replacing the old soaring RSU and small briefing room. The tower controls soaring and powered flight operations and has the largest floor space of any tower in the Air Force. In 2005, construction began to upgrade the dirt sailplane landing area with AvTurf, intended to reduce wear on the landing gear caused by off-field landings.
[edit] Information
The airfield currently features four runways, a helipad, a drop zone, and a sailplane landing area:
| Runway | Dimensions | Surface | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16L/34R | 3500x75 | Asphalt | IFT, Aero club, parachute launch, all other powered flight |
| 16C/34C | 4500x75 | Asphalt | Soaring, occasionally for powered takeoffs or landings |
| 16R/34L | 4500x40 | Asphalt | Soaring |
| 8/26 | 2173x75 | Asphalt | Landings in significant west winds |
| Glider Landing Area | 4500x500 | Dirt and AvTurf | Glider landings only |
| Helipad | 75x75 | Asphalt | Transient rotary wing aircraft |
| Parachute drop zone | Dimensions | Dirt | Parachute landings |
[edit] Trivia
- The Academy has its own airspace (Class D).
- In order for helicopters to land at Northfield Heliport, a small helipad at the top of the mountains near Stanley Canyon, they must contact Skytrain, the soaring control agency.
- The three UV-18 Twin Otters used for parachute launches are actually based at Peterson Air Force Base, and make the short hop over to the Academy Airfield every day.
- There is a small, very well hidden auxiliary field ("Aardvark airstrip")[1] located to the north, at the east end of Jack's Valley just north of the North Gate. It's aligned 17/35, and is about 2000 feet long. It is paved and marked, and even has a weather station placed nearby. It was used in the past for motorglider pattern training, but today is pretty much just an emergency landing strip. It can just barely be seen from a certain part of I-25 and at a few points along the Santa Fe Trail.
