Griffing Sandusky Airport was a 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 ...

in Erie County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, next to

Sandusky Bay Sandusky Bay is a bay on Lake Erie in northern Ohio, formed at the mouth of the Sandusky River. It was identified as ''Lac Sandouské'' on a 1718 French map, with early variations recorded that suggest the name was derived from Native American lan ...

three miles southeast of Sandusky. The airport permanently closed on December 31, 2013 and the FAA A/FD and VFR sectional charts no longer show the airport as open or operational. Instrument approach procedures are no longer available from the FAA's website. All hangars and the entrance were demolished in April, 2016. The Sandusky Register confirmed that the city announced that a sports park will replace the airport and now has opened in spring 2017 called the Cedar Point Sports Center.

Facilities and aircraft

The airport covered 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 § Vert ...

of 580 feet (177 m) 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. ...

. It had two

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 ...

s: 18/36, 2,593 by 40 feet (790 x 12 m) and 9/27, 3,559 by 60 feet (1,085 x 18 m). In the year ending May 6, 2008 the airport's operations were distributed as follows: 58%

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 ...

, 40%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...

and 1%

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 ...

. 44 aircraft were then based at this airport: 79.5% 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 ...

and 20.5% multi-engine.

Airlines and destinations

Griffing Flying Service offered scheduled passenger service to Sandusky until December 2013. The nearest airport with scheduled passenger service is Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton.

Accidents and incidents

* On August 10, 2002, a Cessna Citation 500 was substantially damaged during a

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

strike, while departing from Griffing Sandusky Airport. The pilot reported that he was departing on runway 09. During rotation, a deer crossed the runway and impacted the nose gear of the airplane. The pilot continued the takeoff and diverted to Toledo Express Airport (TOL). The pilot made two passes over TOL, while ground rescue personnel verified that the nose landing gear was not fully extended. After burning additional

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

, the pilot made an approach to runway 25 at TOL. About 100 feet above the ground, he shut down the engines, fuel shut-off, and generators. The airplane then landed on runway 25, and came to rest on the fork of the nose gear and gear doors. The probable cause of the accident was found to be a collision with a deer during a night takeoff. * On July 20, 2003, a

Piper PA-28 The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of two-seat or four-seat light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft and designed for flight training, air taxi and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 62–64. Werner & Werner Corp, ...

was substantially damaged during a go-around at the Griffin Sandusky Airport. The pilot reported that while turning onto the final approach path, he observed a twin-engine airplane on a taxiway near the runway. The pilot was not certain if the airplane was going to utilize the runway, and elected to go-around. The pilot subsequently applied full power and retracted one of two notches of flaps. The pilot then observed the twin-engine airplane passing under his airplane's wing. The engine then began to "stumble," and the pilot felt the yoke in his left hand becoming very heavy. He looked down at the power quadrant and noticed that the engine mixture control was pulled back. The pilot pushed mixture control in and lowered the airplane's nose to avoid a stall; however, the airplane struck trees about 1/2 mile beyond the departure end of the runway. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot's failure to maintain the engine mixture control during the go-around, which resulted in a loss of power, and in-flight collision with trees. * On May 4, 2011, a Commander 114B airplane was substantially damaged while landing at Griffing Sandusky Airport. The pilot reported that the final approach was uneventful and that there was a 6 knot crosswind that required aileron input to manage. The airplane touched down on the main landing gear, slightly right of the runway centerline, and the landing roll was uneventful for 40-60 yards until the aircraft veered left. The pilot's application of right rudder and full right brake were not successful in regaining directional control. The airplane departed the left side of the runway into an area of soft grass. The airplane subsequently swerved back onto the runway before coming to rest. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot's inadequate directional control while landing in a variable crosswind.

References

External links

Aerial photo as of 10 October 2000
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 prov ...

'' * {{US-airport-minor, SKY, SKY Defunct airports in Ohio Buildings and structures in Sandusky, Ohio Transportation in Erie County, Ohio 2013 disestablishments in Ohio