Airport sees traffic from across country, up to 1,000 operations per month

The community has plenty of resources that are appreciated but a few that people may not be aware of. The New Albany-Union County Airport is one.

“A lot of people don’t’ even know we have an airport,” manager Rudy Dixon said.

Others may know but have misconceptions. “A time or two a month I’ll get a call from somebody asking how much a ticket is to fly somewhere,” he said.

The airport, of course, has no commercial airlines but isn’t exactly idle, either.

“The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) counts each takeoff and landing,” he said. “We may have guys out here practicing takeoffs and landings so sometimes you may have from 500 to 1,000 in a month.”

Landing and takeoff operations relate to funding in a sort of chicken-or-the-egg way. An

Google Earth photo of airport

airport needs to have more takeoffs and landings to get additional funding, but funding is needed to improve the facility to increase takeoffs and landings.

People might be surprised to learn that the official FAA number is an average of 34 operations a day at the local airport. About 52 percent of the traffic is transient, about 27 percent is local and, possibly more surprising, is that 27 percent was listed as military.

“The National Guard trains here twice a year in the spring and fall,” Dixon said.

“The forestry service uses this airport a lot,” he continued. “They operate out of here and use helicopters to start controlled burns in the national forests. They drop some kind of balls to start the fires.”

Of course much of the traffic at the airport is from local pilots.

“We probably have 26 or 27 planes that stay here all the time,” he said. “Most owners are from this area but some from Tennessee, some from Collierville, some are Fed Ex pilots.”

Present terminal building

Although Dixon didn’t know of anyone now, in the past local pilots who worked as air traffic controllers or for companies like Federal Express had planes here and flew to work at Memphis every day.

But pilots from all parts of the country may land in New Albany.

“One day I had a guy in a 1958 Cessna 182 going from Idaho to Ft. Myers, Fla.,” he said. “He had been planning the trip for 20 years and was just finally getting to it. He dropped in and fueled on the way down there.”

Fuel availability 24 hours a day helps increase local air traffic because a plane can taxi up to the fuel farm and anyone with a credit card can gas up any time. New Albany does not have jet fuel for sale yet but it does have the 100LL general aviation fuel for piston-driven engines.

An added bonus right now is that New Albany has the lowest price for fuel within at least a 50-mile radius. The fuel here sells for $3.25 a gallon while it is as high as $4.95 in neighboring areas and the average price is $3.93.

“People can look it (fuel price) up on the internet when they fly,” Dixon said. Part of the reason for New Albany’s low price is luck. “We were getting low so I ordered more recently and was able to take advantage of the low price,” Dixon said. The highest he remembers paying himself was $7 a gallon in El Paso, Texas.

Most of the local air traffic consists of single-engine planes.

“We do have a few jets,” Dixon said. He recalls that a pastor flew into New Albany in his own private jet, preached at a church here and then flew out. Some company jets land here.

“Then, one time VIP (Cinema Seating) had a big installation job in Austin, Texas but they forgot a box about the size of an ottoman,” he said. “They leased a jet to come here and pick it up and take it right back to them.”

In addition to the occasional small jet the airport sees a few helicopters and even paragliders or ultralight aircraft.

He would like to see more jet traffic, which would usually be commercial or business.

“If we get more jet traffic it will help with our runway extension,” he said.

Now, the airport has a 3,900-foot runway that is 75 feet wide. A taxiway parallels the runway part of its length. They want to extend the taxiway the full length of the runway.

“We would like to have 5,000 feet,” he said. “With 5,000 feet we can do charters and build bigger hangars. I know I could rent them,” he said.

The airport’s plain brick building dates back to when the airport was officially activated, in 1963 according to the FAA data (there was a grass strip somewhere off Hwy. 30 West before that but Dixon is not sure exactly where it was).

Soon to be ready, however, is a much larger new $570,000 terminal building, almost entirely paid for with FAA and MDOT grants. Grant money is also paying a new set of LED runway lights to be installed in the next week or two and helped pay for 16 T hangars, which are all full. The T hangars are actually T-shaped spaces fit together in alternating directions like a puzzle to save space but accommodate the form of a winged aircraft.

“We have two bigger executive hangars and one county hangar,” Dixon said. The county hangar, probably the oldest structure, is about to get a new roof, floor, lighting and insulation. “It should look like a new hangar,” he said.

Not all local air traffic is business-related, as noted earlier.

“A lot of people fly in because they have family here,” he said. “They eat, visit. And you wouldn’t believe the number of people who come in for ball games at the sportsplex. And if we could advertise it, the furniture market.”

“People would rather fly into an uncontrolled airport,” he said, whether it is for fuel or with the intent to land and rent a vehicle to drive. College football games draw a fair amount of traffic that way.

By “uncontrolled,” Dixon means there is no tower, air traffic control or official approach and departure procedures necessary.

“You don’t even have to have a radio to land here,” he said, but didn’t recommend that.

Dixon is usually at the airport from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week, but also other times when he knows someone will be needing him or want to use the courtesy car. “Yesterday I wanted to check the runway lights so I was out here before dawn,” he said. “It all depends on what is going on.”

Phone calls to the airport are forwarded to him but pilots can land at night without assistance. The rotating beacon operates from dusk to dawn automatically and pilots can turn on the airport lights with their radios. “You use the radio frequency and click five times,” he said. “The lights will stay on 15 minutes and if they need more they can click again.”

The airport serves a social function as well.

“Some pilots work on their planes from time to time,” he said. “I always put on a pot of fresh coffee and sometimes there will be five people or more here. We’ll just sit, talk and drink coffee. It’s called ‘hangar flying.’”

One owner has a Christian Eagle aerobatic plane and is building a Pitts Special, another aerobatic aircraft.

There are a few surprises and simply interesting occurrences at the airport.

“One morning last fall I came in to find a girl asleep on the couch and another in the chair,” he said.

The girls, ages 19 and 21, were from London, England. “They were in a Cessna 150. One was in the Royal Air Force,” he said. “They were in a flying club and came to the U. S. through Maine.”

The girls’ plan was to fly in every state to raise money for disabled veterans. “I took them to get breakfast and they needed some oil for their plane so we got that,” he said. “They texted me every day but their plane kept breaking down, so they only got about half way and ran out of time.”

Some other traffic is more of a mystery.

He said the airport has a woman who comes to the airport about twice a month, gets on a King Air, and flies to Houston, Texas or the Coast and comes back the same day. He has no idea who she is or why she travels, just that she fairly regularly uses the airport.

Dixon is a pilot himself, but doesn’t fly as much as he used to. He can’t fly without a copilot due to medication he is taking, but he still enjoys it.

“Awhile back there’s this guy who has a 1946 Air Coupe (Dixon’s favorite local aircraft),” he said. “We flew up to Savannah, Tenn. got a courtesy car, went downtown to eat and came back. We just went up there for dinner.”

Dixon has been airport manager for three years. A Union County native, he has lived in different parts of the country, is a Viet Nam veteran and has been a trucker with his own business.

Now he enjoys his role at the airport, always accompanied by his dog Rusty, the friendly airport spaniel.

As he said, the airport will be even more successful with an extended runway and more hangar space. “I would also like to see somebody put in a repair shop or an instrument shop,” he said. That would increase traffic.

“I wish the city and county would show more interest in the airport,” he said, acknowledging that they perhaps just don’t realize what is happening at it. Publicity might help.

“I would like to have a small air show, if we could work out parking,” he said.

“I just don’t think people realize what we are doing out here, and how nice it is,” he said.

Fast facts:

The airport property includes about 100 acres, most of the non-runway area used for hay.

It takes six hours with a commercial mower to mow a 15-foot wide area around the runway

The airport is three miles north of New Albany on County Road 80 off County Road 81 just past the Tennessee Gas pumping station.

Fees include $3.25 per gallon for fuel (subject to change), $5 to tie an aircraft down, $75 a month for T hangar rental and $50 a month for county hangar rental.

The office hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday but special arrangements can be made by calling.

The phone number is 662-534-1050.

City and county split expenses and revenue and the operation is overseen by a jointly-appointed board.