Aero Country Airport
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Aero Country Airport is a privately owned public
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
west of the
central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
of
McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau l ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The airport has no
IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
or
ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...
designation. The airport is used solely for
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
purposes. Aero Country previously used the FAA LID of TX05 until at least July 1997. The FAA LID of T31 was previously used for
Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport is a public airport in Cameron County, Texas, United States, serving the city of Port Isabel, Texas. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but Port Isabel-Camer ...
in
Port Isabel, Texas Port Isabel is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas. The population was 5,006 at the 2010 census. The city's name is given ...
until at least July 1992.


Facilities

Aero Country Airport covers at an elevation of above
mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...
and has one
runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...
: * Runway 17/35: 4,352 x 60 ft. (1,326 x 18 m), Surface:
Asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
/
Turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultu ...
For the year ending December 31, 2015, the airport had 9,000 aircraft operations, averaging 25 per day: 100%
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
. 244 aircraft were then based at this airport: 90% single-
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
, 7% multi-engine, 2%
helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
, and 1% gliders.


Accidents and incidents

* 2 April 1983: Three passengers disembarked from a
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...
, registration number ''N927BA'', while the engines were still running, despite having been instructed by the aircrew prior to the flight not to exit until the engines were shut down. One passenger walked into the rotating left-hand propeller and suffered a fatal head injury; the other passengers were not injured. The accident was attributed to inadequate verbal instructions and supervision of the passengers by the pilot in command, and to the failure of the passengers to understand the pilot's instructions. A contributing factor was unsafe actions by the passengers. * 19 July 1997: A Rans S-9, registration number ''N1678N'', lost engine power after a high-speed pass over the runway. The pilot attempted to turn back and land, but the craft
stalled ''Stalled'' is a 2013 British zombie comedy film directed by Christian James. It stars Dan Palmer, who also wrote the screenplay, as a man confined to a bathroom stall after zombies attack. Produced by Richard Kerrigan and Daniel Pickering, the f ...
and went into a
spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
during the "very tight" 180° turn. The S-9 impacted the ground in a near-vertical attitude, killing the pilot and sole occupant. The accident was attributed to ''"loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s), and failure of the pilot to maintain adequate airspeed, while maneuvering for a
forced landing A forced landing is a landing by an aircraft made under factors outside the pilot's control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components, or weather which makes continued flight impossible. For a full description of these, see article on ' ...
, which resulted in a stall and collision with the terrain."'' * 9 January 2001: A Nord 1101 Noralpha, registration number ''N208BF'', lost engine power on takeoff and was badly damaged in a subsequent off-airport forced landing, seriously injuring the pilot; the single passenger suffered no injuries. The aft throttle linkage assembly's push/pull rod was found separated from the support bushing. The accident was attributed to ''"the loss of engine power during takeoff resulting from the inadequate engagement of the throttle torque tube rod end into the support bushing by unknown maintenance personnel."'' * 31 December 2016: A Piper PA-28R-200 Arrow, registration number ''N4407T'', and a
Luscombe 8A The Luscombe 8 is a series of high-wing, side-by-side-seating monoplanes with conventional landing gear, designed in 1937 and built by Luscombe Aircraft. Development Luscombe Aircraft closed in 1949, with its assets purchased by Temco Aircr ...
, registration number ''N2889K'', collided in mid-air in the
airfield traffic pattern An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing while maintaining visual contact with the airfield. At an airport, the pattern (or circuit) is a standard path for coordinating air traffic. It differ ...
approximately 1/2 mi (0.8 km) east of the airport. The Piper crashed into a storage facility, starting a substantial fire that damaged a stored boat; the blaze thwarted bystanders' attempts to rescue the pilot, who was killed. The collision severed the
empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
of the Luscombe, which then crashed in the southbound lanes of Custer Road near Virginia Parkway; the pilot and single passenger died. Investigators determined that neither aircraft maneuvered to avoid the collision and that both pilots had likely been unable to see the other's aircraft. Furthermore, the Piper pilot crossed midfield at traffic pattern altitude rather than at least above pattern altitude as prescribed in FAA guidance material, and witnesses did not hear the Piper pilot declare his intentions on the
common traffic advisory frequency Common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) is the name given to the VHF radio frequency used for air-to-air communication at United States, Canadian and Australian non-towered airports. Many towered airports close their towers overnight, keeping ...
, while the Luscombe pilot had done so. The accident was attributed to ''"The
iper Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgium, Belgian City status in Belgium, city and municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official ...
pilot's use of an alternate traffic pattern entry procedure, which resulted in his inability to see and avoid the other airplane, which was flying the preferred traffic pattern, and the subsequent midair collision."'' * 11 November 2023: A single-engine
Lancair IV-P The Lancair IV and IV-P are a family of four-seat, low-wing, retractable-gear, composite monoplanes powered by a 550 cubic inch Continental TSIO-550 twin-turbocharged piston engine.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', ...
flying from
Midland, Texas Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County. At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...
overshot the runway at Aero Country Airport during an attempted emergency landing. The plane crashed into a fence before colliding with a sedan traveling east on Virginia Parkway. One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The
FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
is investigating the cause of the crash.


See also

*
List of airports in Texas This list of airports in Texas (a U.S. state) is grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that were p ...


References

;Notes ;Citations


External links

* at
Texas DOT The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with the construction and maintenance of the state's immense state highway system ...
Airport Directory * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aero Country Airport Airports in Texas Airports in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Transportation in Collin County, Texas