Aurora State Airport

For other uses of "UAO", see UAO (disambiguation).
Aurora State Airport
Wes Lematta Field
Aurora Flight Strip

2006 USGS Orthophoto
IATA: none – ICAO: KUAO – FAA LID: UAO
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Oregon Department of Aviation
Serves Aurora, Oregon
Location Marion County, near Aurora, Oregon
Elevation AMSL 200 ft / 61 m
Coordinates 45°14′50″N 122°46′12″W / 45.24722°N 122.77000°W / 45.24722; -122.77000
Map
KUAO

Location of Aurora State Airport

Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
17/35 5,004 1,525 Asphalt
Statistics (2000)
Aircraft operations 73,895
Based aircraft 432
Boeing Vertol 234 C-FHFB (cn MJ005) During inspection at Columbia Helicopters Heliport adjacent to Aurora State Airport.

Aurora State Airport (ICAO: KUAO, FAA LID: UAO) is a public airport located one mile (2 km) northwest of the central business district of Aurora, a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. It is owned by the Oregon Department of Aviation.[1]

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Aurora State Airport is assigned UAO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.[2]

Primarily a general aviation airport, Aurora has significant business aviation based at the field. In addition the airport serves as the home to two major aviation companies Van's Aircraft and Columbia Helicopters.

On May 26, 2009, the Oregon State Legislature passed a resolution identifying the airport as Wes Lematta Field at Aurora State Airport. The late Wes Lematta was the founder of Columbia Helicopters located on the northeastern corner of the field.[3][4]

Facilities and aircraft

Aurora State Airport covers an area of 144 acres (58 ha) which contains one asphalt paved runway (17/35) measuring 5,004 x 100 ft (1,525 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2000, the airport had 73,895 aircraft operations, an average of 202 per day: 91% general aviation, 8% air taxi and <1% military. There are 432 aircraft based at this airport: 84% single engine, 7% multi-engine, 1% jet aircraft and 8% helicopters.[1]

Three fixed-base operators operate at the field: Aurora Aviation, Aurora Jet Center, and Willamette Aviation. Aurora Aviation and Willamette Aviation provide aircraft fuel services, flight instruction, aircraft rentals, and aircraft sales, while the Aurora Jet Center primarily provides aircraft refuelling services, hangars for corporate aircraft, and an executive lounge for private and corporate jet operations.

Due to increased flight activity and its' location in the busy airspace corridor between Salem McNary Field and Portland International Airport, an Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower was constructed at the Aurora State Airport. As of late 2015 construction of the control tower was complete and the tower became operational. In addition to the new ATC Tower the Airspace class designation at UAO was changed to "Class D" Airspace.

History

The airport was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1943,[5] and was known as Aurora Flight Strip. It was an outlying (supporting) airfield to Portland Army Air Base for military aircraft on training flights.[6] It was closed after World War II, and was turned over for state government use by the War Assets Administration (WAA).[7]

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. 1 2 3 FAA Airport Master Record for UAO (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-07-05
  2. ↑ Great Circle Mapper: KUAO - Aurora, Oregon (Aurora State Airport)
  3. ↑ Oregon Legislature Renames Aurora State Airport in Honor of Wes Lematta
  4. ↑ Senate Joint Resolution 8
  5. ↑ AAF Station List, May 1943, sec. II, p. 5.
  6. ↑ http://www.oregon.gov/aviation/docs/resources/FLIGHTlines_Summer_2012.pdf
  7. ↑ http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/WW2/WW2%20R22%20NJ-TN.htm Archived October 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.

External links

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