Grayling Army Airfield is a public/military 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 surfa ...

located one nautical mile (1.85 km) northwest of the central business district of Grayling, in

Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States: * Crawford County, Arkansas * Crawford County, Georgia * Crawford County, Illinois * Crawford County, Indiana * Crawford County, Iowa * Crawford County, Kansas * Crawford Count ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

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 territori ...

. It is owned by

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. The airfield is located northeast of the main cantonment area of

Camp Grayling Camp Grayling is a military training facility located near Grayling, Michigan, primarily in Crawford County, and spread over three counties. Camp Grayling is the main training facility for the Michigan National Guard and is the largest US Nationa ...

. 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 ...

(FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a

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. Grayling AAF covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of 1,158 feet (353 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2008, the airport had 4,691 aircraft operations, an average of 10 per day: 63%

and 37%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for 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 ...

and IATA, this airport is assigned GOV by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned GOV to

Gove Airport Gove Airport (also known as Gove-Nhulunbuy Airport) is on the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia. It services the mining town of Nhulunbuy and several Aboriginal communities including Yirrkala. The airport is located sou ...

in Australia).

History

Camp Grayling itself has existed since 1913, and the airport was first built in 1977. In 2022, the State of Michigan authorized $1 million to go towards expansions to the airport. Up to 250 square miles of public land could be repurposed for the base in general. The plans were opposed by conservation groups, citing potential environmental and economic impacts. The airport received an additional $100 million in 2023 for modernization efforts, including a goal to address the inequities that female service members face as well as efforts to increase recruitment of women in the area.

Military Use

The airport is part of Camp Grayling, the largest National Guard training facility in the United States. In 2020, the Michigan National Guard officially unveiled the National All-Domain Warfighting Center to train in a variety of operations, including sea, land, air, space, and cyber. The airport is the base for aircraft that use 147,000 acres of multi-use ranges and maneuver courses to accommodate a variety of air-to-air and air-to-ground training exercises. The airport is also a training hub for national guard units from surrounding states.

Facilities and aircraft

The airfield consists of two 5000x150-foot runways with overrun and wide connecting

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 ...

s. * Runway 5/23: 5,000 x 150 ft (1,524 x 46 m), surface: concrete * Runway 14/32: 5,005 x 150 ft (1526 x 46 m), surface: asphalt Runway 5/23 and taxiways A/D/E are closed during the winter months, since there is no snow removal on these surfaces. The airport is staffed from dawn until dusk. The parking area can accommodate fixed-wing aircraft with parking for 100 helicopters, 50 with cement pads with a total of 70 tie downs. The control tower was recently upgraded to a STVS (Small Tower Voice Switch) system with positions in three different locations. There is an operations building which includes an operations center, flight planning room, safety office, commander's office, and a weather room. Additionally, the airfield contains a maintenance hangar, crash rescue barn and NAVAIDS which include TVOR, NDB,

VASI Vasi or VASI may refer to: * Visual Approach Slope Indicator, a system of lights on the side of an airport runway threshold *Vasi-vari or Wasi-wari language, a language spoken by the Wasi people in the Prasun Valley in Afghanistan Places *Vasi, Ir ...

and REIL. The airport is accessible by road from M-93 and BL I-75, and is close to M-72 and

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...

. The airport has a fixed-base operator that sells fuel and offers various facilities and amenities. For the 12-month period ending December 29, 2019, the airport had 11,000 airport operations, an average of 30 per day. This includes 56%

and 44%

. For the same time period, there were 9 aircraft based on the field, all single-engine

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 ...

References

External links

Grayling Army Airfield
page at Michigan National Guard website
Aerial photo as of 30 April 1999
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to pro ...

'' * page at Michigan Airport Directory * {{US-airport-ga, GOV, - Airports in Michigan Buildings and structures in Crawford County, Michigan United States Army airfields Military installations in Michigan Transportation in Crawford County, Michigan Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Michigan Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Technical Service Command Airports established in 1943 1943 establishments in Michigan

History

Military Use

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

External links