Coral Creek Airport (

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 ...

LID A lid, also known as a cover, is part of a container, and serves as the closure or seal, usually one that completely closes the object. Lids can be placed on small containers such as tubs as well as larger lids for open-head pails and drums. S ...

: FA54) is a private-use

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 ...

located 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Boca Grande, a community on

Gasparilla Island Gasparilla Island is a barrier island in southwest Florida, United States, straddling the border of Charlotte and Lee counties. Its largest town is Boca Grande, and it is the location of the Gasparilla Island State Park. The island has been an ...

in southwest

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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. The airport itself is located in

Placida ''Placida'' is a genus of very small or minute sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks in the family Limapontiidae.Charlotte County (specifically, on the Cape Haze Peninsula), about a mile north of the separately-owned Coral Creek Club. The airport is privately owned by BK IV AS, L.L.C. The airfield is composed of a single

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 ...

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 ...

connected to a

ramp An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

and two

hangars 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 ...

via a single

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

. There is one FBO for the airport, known as Boca Grande Jet Center. The office is attached to the main hangar which is connected to the public

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

by a private

driveway A driveway (also called ''drive'' in UK English) is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group. Driveways rarely have traffic lights, but some that bear ...

. Services for the airport are restricted to members-only with limited guest accommodations. Permission is needed to land; however, the

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...

is uncontrolled and there is no

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

History

Coral Creek Airport opened as Rotonda International Airport in the mid-1960s. It was purchased in 2003 and, subsequently, made private. In 2012, under new ownership, the 6000 foot runway, currently in place, was surfaced. In the late hours of May 20, 2013, a group of

burglars Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

cut through a section of wire fence along the perimeter to gain entry onto the property. Using three large trucks, they left damage, stole a large quantity of

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

fuel, as well as a fuel pump. The group was unable to get inside the locked hangars. Upon leaving, one of the trucks had gotten stuck in mud caused by recent heavy rainfall and a front-end loader was used to free the vehicle. Repairs were made to the damaged areas of the airport and regular service was quickly back underway, as was the expansion project taking place at the time. The expansion project saw the addition of a second hangar, now typically utilized for long-term car and plane storage. Total hangar area is 17,140 square feet.

Facilities

The runway is lit by pilot-controlled, medium intensity

lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...

with PAPIs on the north and south ends. A rotating

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

light is located on the main hangar. Weather is reported via an

AWOS Airport weather stations are automated sensor suites which are designed to serve aviation and meteorological operations, weather forecasting and climatology. Automated airport weather stations have become part of the backbone of weather observing ...

III P/T station. Both of the hangars are capable of holding

Gulfstream The Gulf Stream is a warm Atlantic Ocean current. Gulf Stream or Gulfstream may also refer to: Places *Gulf Stream, Florida, a town in the United States Art, entertainment, and media *''Gulf Stream Magazine'', a literary magazine at Florida Intern ...

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aircraft. There are six GA tiedowns on the ramp. Boca Grande Jet Center is a full-service FBO that offers

Jet-A Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial av ...

, Jet-A w/ Prist,

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, and LAV. There are kitchen and shower facilities on the property, as well as internet in the main FBO office. The FBO can also arrange rental cars and catering.

Activities

Due to the private nature of the airport and because it serves members on-demand, it is difficult to gather a consistent schedule or number of movements. Takeoffs and landings can range from few to several on any given day. Generally, peak season occurs between October and June, the period of business for the nearby Gasparilla Inn (whose guests are given limited access to the airport). Neither the airport nor the airspace is used for training purposes.

Aircraft

Common aircraft operating at the airport include: *

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviati ...

Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996. ...

* Bombardier **

Challenger Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to: Entertainment Comics and manga * Challenger (character), comic book character * ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga Film and TV * ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...

** Learjet *

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

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Dassault Dassault Group (; also GIM Dassault or Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS) is a French group of companies established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, and led by son Ser ...

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

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Hawker Beechcraft Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was an American aerospace manufacturing company that built the Beechcraft and Hawker business jet lines of aircraft between 2006 and 2013. The company headquarters was in Wichita, Kansas, United States, with ...

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** Sabre 65 *

Piaggio Piaggio & C. SpA (Piaggio ) is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under seven brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi, and Scarabeo. Its ...

** Avanti The runway can accommodate aircraft with a

gross weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

up to 100,000 lbs. While the airport does store aircraft when members fly in, there are none permanently based at the airport. All aircraft are privately owned or chartered by members.

Gallery

File:Coral Creek Front End.jpg, alt=Main entrance., Main entrance File:Coral Creek Signage 2.jpg, alt=Wooden sign (north-facing)., Wooden sign (north-facing)

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Airports in Florida Gasparilla Island Privately owned airports