Ottawa/Carp Airport or Carp Airport is located south of

Carp, Ontario Carp is a compact rural community in West Carleton-March Ward in the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located in the northwestern portion of the municipality on the Carp River. It is about from downtown Ottawa. Prior to amalgamation in 2001, ...

, Canada, a small village that is now part of Ottawa. Carp is the only airport in the Ottawa area where private

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

space is readily available, so it is a popular home base for local

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 ...

pilots. The airport had been owned by the city of Ottawa until 2005 but was transferred to a private company, West Capital Developments, who plan to build an airport community and industrial park at the airport.

History

RCAF Detachment Carp was constructed as a relief landing field for No.2 Service Flying Training School at

RCAF Station Uplands The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environme ...

, as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The outline of the characteristic three-runway triangle is still visible in the shape of the taxiways, but one of the runways has disappeared, and another (04/22) is gravel-covered and restricted to

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

(VFR) only. Near the airport is

CFS Carp The Diefenbunker, formerly known by its military designation, Canadian Forces Station Carp (CFS Carp), is a large underground four-storey reinforced concrete bunker and nuclear fallout shelter located in the rural area of Carp, Ontario approxima ...

, the largest of the Canadian Cold War

Emergency Government Headquarters Emergency Government Headquarters is the name given for a system of nuclear fallout shelters built by the Government of Canada in the 1950s and 1960s as part of continuity of government planning at the height of the Cold War. Situated at stra ...

(nicknamed the Diefenbunker), a giant long-term fallout shelter for government and military officials that now serves as a museum.

Tenants

Former

Besides the RCAF, Carp was home to

First Air Bradley Air Services Limited, operating as First Air, was an airline headquartered in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.Helicopter Transport Services and

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

(EAA) Chapter 245.

Accidents and incidents

*On 28 January 1974,

Douglas C-47B The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft A military transport aircraft, military cargo aircraft or airlifter is a military-owned transport aircraft used to su ...

CF-TVK of Bradley Air Services, now First Air, was destroyed in a hangar fire. *On 16 June 2006, BD-5J jet C-GBDV piloted by Scott Manning, crashed during a Friday practice session for the 2006 Carp Airshow after an incorrectly installed right flap deployed during a low pass, leading to an uncontrollable right roll and crash just beyond the end of runway 10. The pilot was killed. *On 10 February 2021, a Blackshape BS100 performing circuits crashed at the airport, killing the pilot. The pilot reported an engine failure while climbing from runway 28, causing the aircraft to crash about south of the runway.

References

External links