Custer Airport , sometimes referred to as Monroe Custer Airport, is a city-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 ...

located in the city of Monroe in

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: * Monroe County, Alabama *Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida * Monroe County, Georgia *Monroe County, Illinois *Monroe County, Indian ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The airport opened in November 1946 and was named for

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

, who spent much of his early life in Monroe. It is included in the

Federal Aviation Administration 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 ...

(FAA)

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a 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 ...

facility. Custer Airport is owned by the city of Monroe and is financially supported through hangar rentals, landing fees, and fuel sales. It is located on North Custer Road (formerly designated as M-130) about two miles (3.2 km) northwest of Monroe's downtown area. The airport property itself—occupying —is an

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of the

city limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate limi ...

and is separated by a one-quarter mile (0.4 km) wide undeveloped residential area belonging to Frenchtown Charter Township. Since the city owns the airport, the area it occupies was incorporated into the city limits. Munson Park, the largest public recreation park in Monroe, occupies the land immediately east of the airport. The

River Raisin The River Raisin is a river in southeastern Michigan, United States, that flows through Ice age, glacial sediments into Lake Erie. The area today is an agriculture, agricultural and Industrial sector, industrial center of Michigan. The river flo ...

is just south of the airport, and

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

land surrounds the airport to the west and north.

Facilities and aircraft

The airport has one

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 (designated as runway 3/21) with a full-length taxiway. Both are illuminated with high intensity lighting; runway 21 has runway end identifiers (REILS) and both runways have visual approach slope indicators (VASI). The airport has no regularly scheduled flights or arrivals. As a

airport, it is mainly used by private pilots for personal and business use, as well as a variety of chartered aircraft bringing people in to do business in Monroe County. Custer Airport is able to accommodate a large variety of aircraft, including single engine aircraft, twin engine aircraft, and business jets such as the

Cessna Citation The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets by Cessna that started in 1972 with the entry into service of the first model. In the fifty years following the 1969 first flight, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest b ...

and Learjet. The airport has personal

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 ...

s that house approximately 45 airplanes and a large hangar that houses several corporate aircraft as well as the Monroe Aviation School of Flight and Monroe Aviation Aircraft Maintenance. In addition, a Michigan

Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded mem ...

aircraft is stationed at the airport. The Monroe County Sheriff Department maintains hangars for its helicopter operations. The airport has 100LL fuel available 24 hours through self-serve as well as full-service Jet-A fuel. The airport's

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

offers general maintenance, aircraft parking, courtesy transportation, rental cars, a crew lounge, and more. The airport operates continuously and is staffed from 8:00 AM–5:00 PM with after-hours services available through prior arrangement. Custer Airport has no

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

, and instrument traffic is handled by the

Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOB) or Cleveland Center is located at 326 East Lorain Street, Oberlin, Ohio, United States. The center is located about outside of the city of Cleveland.Wildavsky, Aaron B. Leadership in a Small Town. ...

(ZOB) in coordination with the Detroit Approach and Departure Control. The nearest neighboring airports that can accommodate flights from Custer Airport are Lenawee County Airport to the west,

Toledo Suburban Airport Toledo Suburban Airport is a public use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southwest of the central business district of Lambertville, a city in Monroe County, Michigan, United States. It is located just north of Michigan's border wi ...

to the southwest, and

Grosse Ile Municipal Airport Grosse Ile Municipal Airport is two miles south of Grosse Ile, in Wayne County, Michigan. It is owned by the Township of Grosse Ile. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 catego ...

to the north.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport , usually called Detroit Metro Airport, Metro Airport, or simply DTW, is a major international airport in the United States covering effective December 30, 2021. in Romulus, Michigan. It is the primary ...

and

Toledo Express Airport Toledo Express Airport, officially Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport , is a civil-military airport in Swanton and Monclova townships west of Toledo in western Lucas County, Ohio, United States. It opened in 1954-55 as a replacement to t ...

are within close proximity and are used regularly by pilots departing Monroe for both business and training purposes. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2021, the airport had 12,000 aircraft operations, an average of 33 per day. It was composed entirely of

. For the same time period, there were 30 aircraft based at the airport, all

airplanes An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectr ...

: 27 single-engine and 3 multi-engine.

Security concerns

Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in 2001, local concerns were raised that Custer Airport could be shut down by government intervention because of the airport's close proximity to a

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

plant. Custer Airport is located approximately from the

Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station The Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant on the shore of Lake Erie near Monroe, in Frenchtown Charter Township, Michigan on approximately . All units of the plant are operated by the DTE Energy Electric Company and ow ...

in neighboring Frenchtown Charter Township. It was proposed that airports within of a nuclear power plant be shut down until tighter security policies and government mandates could be enacted by both the airports and nuclear power plants. Custer Airport was ultimately not affected and experienced no changes in security procedures or operations, because security was deemed more than adequate at the small airport.

Airshow

The airport hosts an annual airshow called the Wings and Wheels. Vintage cars and aircraft from the

Yankee Air Museum The Yankee Air Museum is an aviation museum located at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, Michigan. The museum has a small fleet of flying aircraft and a collection of static display aircraft outdoors. History The Yankee Air Force Inc. w ...

are displayed on the airport's property for visitors.

Accidents and incidents

*On July 4, 2002, a Beech A23 Bonanza sustained substantial damage when the nose landing gear collapsed during landing on runway 03 at the Custer Airport. The pilot reported that he was practicing takeoffs and landings when, on the fourth landing, he flared too high and bounced. The airplane then went off the right side of the runway, where "the nosewheel dug into the terrain causing it to collapse and the airplane to go nose down." *On March 29, 2011, a

Piper Malibu The Piper PA-46 Malibu and Matrix, now known as the M-Class, are a family of American light aircraft manufactured by Piper Aircraft of Vero Beach, Florida. The aircraft is powered by a single engine and has the capacity for one pilot and five ...

airplane crashed in a soccer field in neighboring Munson Park. The airplane departed from

earlier that day and traveled about southeast to Bedford County Airport in Pennsylvania. The airplane then departed back to Michigan to land at Custer Airport. However, as it approached the airport, it circled low to the ground and crashed in Munson Park, exploding upon impact and killed all three people on board. Subsequent investigations by the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

(NTSB) revealed no mechanical failures. Postmodern toxicology performed on the pilot showed the presence of

hydrocodone Hydrocodone, also known as dihydrocodeinone, is an opioid used to treat pain and as a cough suppressant. It is taken by mouth. Typically it is dispensed as the combination acetaminophen/hydrocodone or ibuprofen/hydrocodone for pain severe en ...

and

dihydrocodeine Dihydrocodeine is a semi-synthetic opioid analgesic prescribed for pain or severe dyspnea, or as an antitussive, either alone or compounded with paracetamol (acetaminophen) (as in co-dydramol) or aspirin. It was developed in Germany in 1908 a ...

, and the NTSB concluded that the accident was caused by the pilot showing poor judgement by attempting a high-speed turnaround over the runway, subsequently failing to maintain clearance to the runway. *On December 21, 2017, a

Cessna 172 Skyhawk The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.touch-and-go landing In aviation, a touch-and-go landing (TGL) or circuit is a maneuver that is common when learning to fly a fixed-wing aircraft. It involves landing on a runway and taking off again without coming to a full stop. Usually the pilot then circles the a ...

at Custer. The flight instructor reported that the student pilot began to flare for touchdown when a wind gust yawed the airplane to the left. He added that the wind "dropped out," and the airplane landed hard with the nose low, which resulted in a nose landing gear collapse. The probable cause was found to be the student pilot’s improper yaw control during the landing flare and the flight instructor’s failure to take remedial action, which resulted in a hard landing.

References

External links

Custer Airport
- City of Monroe official website
Fixed-Base Operator website
{{Metro Detroit Transportation Airports in Michigan Monroe, Michigan Airports in Monroe County, Michigan Airports established in 1946 1946 establishments in Michigan