New Richmond Regional Airport is a large general aviation airport located in the city of

New Richmond, Wisconsin New Richmond is a city in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 10,079 as of the 2020 census. History New Richmond was founded in 1857. The first permanent settlement was established by Hiram Foster, who had led a group ...

, United States. The airport is owned by the City of New Richmond and operated by a seven member airport commission. 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 2021–2025, 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. The airport is located in western Wisconsin approximately northeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Almost 225 aircraft are based in privately owned

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. The airport is home to thirteen aviation related businesses and several business aircraft. The airport contributes millions of dollars per year to the New Richmond area and East Metro economy. The airport serves the Eastern Twin Cities Metro Area and Western Wisconsin, including the popular attractions Cedar Lake Speedway and Somerset recreation areas. The airport serves a population base estimated at 175,000 people, including the following municipalities: New Richmond, Hudson, River Falls, Baldwin, Hammond, Woodville, Glenwood City, Amery, Clear Lake, Somerset, and Stillwater, MN. New Richmond Regional Airport is the only public use airport in St. Croix County.

History

The airport was commissioned by the FAA in July 1964 with a primary

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 ...

(Runway 13-31) and a turf runway (Runway 4-22). In 1992, a major construction project was completed. The primary runway was demolished and replaced by a new runway (Runway 14-32). The original hangar area located on the south end of the airport was also updated to allow additional hangars. A new aircraft parking apron was also constructed. In 1998, an additional taxi lane was added to the south hangar area. The hangar area was completely filled by the end of 1998 with 45 hangars. In 2000, a new hangar area was constructed on the north end of the airport. The new area accommodated a mix of 32 small and medium-sized hangars. A full-length parallel

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 ...

to runway 14-32 was also completed along with a small apron. In 2001, a second addition to the north aircraft parking apron was completed. In 2004, a corporate/business aviation hangar area was added to the north hangar area allowing the construction of up to seven large hangars. A third addition to the aircraft parking apron in the north hangar area was completed. An additional taxiway was also added to the north hangar area to accommodate additional private hangars. A grant from the Department of Homeland Security allowed the construction of a security fence and three automated security gates around the airport. In 2005, two new taxiways were added to the north hangar area to allow an additional 14 private and corporate hangars. In 2006, construction began on an extension to the primary runway and parallel taxiway to runway 14-32. The runway was completed in June 2007 and the parallel taxiway was completed in August 2007. The runway is now long. A helicopter landing apron and a connecting taxiway in the corporate hangar area were also completed as part of the 2006-2007 project. In 2008, the airport completed the purchase of over adjoining the north side of the airport. The land will be used for future economic development. Reconstruction of the oldest portion of the primary runway started on September 8, along with the replacement and upgrading of the runway lighting system. Blast/overrun pads were installed on each end of the primary runway. A connecting taxiway in the corporate hangar area was also constructed. The runway was reopened for operations on October 4. In 2010, a taxiway, taxi lane and access road serving the northeast side of the airport was completed. The project provided the necessary infrastructure for future aviation related businesses. Additional security fencing and gates were also part of the 2010 project. In 2023, the south hangar area pavement originally installed in the fall of 1992, will undergo reconstruction. The existing asphalt will be removed along with 6 inch base course and will be replaced with a new 8 inch base course and 3 or 4 inches of asphalt, depending on location. The airport will begin developing an airport master plan in 2023. Engineering firm SEH was selected by the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics in February 2023 for this task.

Airport businesses

East Metro Jet Center (full and self service fuel including 100LL, Jet A1, and MoGas, deicing, GPU, lav service, potable water service, Corporate Aircraft Association (CAA) member), Eagle Air (aircraft sales), Elevated Aircraft (aircraft sales), Gregg Aviation (accelerated CFI training), Indianhead Airways (piston and turbine aircraft maintenance), Perceptive Avionics (avionics sales and service), New Richmond Aero (piston aircraft maintenance), Proto Type Machine / Aerospace Hydraulics (precision made aircraft parts), Mike Demulling Flight Instruction (primary and advanced flight training), NDT Solutions (non-destructive testing and equipment manufacturing), New Richmond Airside Rental (rental vehicles for passengers and crew), Strix Aero (Engine and carb overhaul), and Top Flight Avionics.

Airport operations

The airport is funded from lease fees for hangar lots and taxes on the hangars. No additional non airport produced funds are used to operate the airport. New Richmond Regional Airport covers an area of 424

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (172 ha) 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 998 feet (304 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. ...

. In April 2024, there were 242 aircraft based at this airport: 195 single-engine, 24 multi-engine, 7 jet, 4 helicopter, 1 glider, 6 military and 5 ultra-light. The airport created an on-site fire department with the addition of an E-One Titan

aircraft rescue and firefighting Aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) is a type of firefighting that involves the emergency response, mitigation, evacuation, and rescue of passengers and crew of aircraft involved in aviation accidents and incidents. Airports with schedule ...

(ARFF) vehicle in February 2022. The vehicle entered service in the spring of 2022 and is staffed by airport personnel and New Richmond Fire and Rescue. Airport personnel provide 24 hour coverage for snow and ice removal on all airport surfaces. As of March 2022, the snow removal fleet consisted of 3 single axle dump trucks with 12 foot plows and 9 foot wings, 1 single axle dump truck with 12 foot plow, 1 reserve dump truck with 12 foot plow, Two 14 foot MB Companies runway sweepers, a 16 foot pusher plow, a Cat 950 loader, a New Holland TV-145 bi-directional industrial tool carrier tractor, a 900 ton per hour Fair Manufacturing snow blower, and a 5,000 ton per hour Wausau snow blower mounted on an Oshkosh chassis. The airport also utilizes a 15' truck mounted boom sprayer for application of E-36 runway deicing fluid. A New Holland T-8 industrial tractor with 20 foot ramp plow, 14' MB Companies runway sweeper, and 1100 ton per hour Fair Manufacturing snow blower were added to the fleet in February 2023. The airport is considered the largest in Wisconsin based on the number of hangars on site, which total 117 existing or under-construction hangars as of February 2023.

Weather

The airport has an on-site Automated Weather Observation Station (

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 ...

) providing continuous aviation weather METAR reports. In the event of an AWOS outage, manual weather observations are recorded by trained weather observers. In August 2006, the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

in Chanhassen, MN began issuing Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF) for New Richmond Regional Airport.

Instrument approaches

The airport has two precision LPV

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

RNAV Area navigation (RNAV, usually pronounced as "''ar-nav"'') is a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigate directly to and from t ...

approaches. The

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...

(NDB) became obsolete with the implementation of the RNAV approaches and was turned off on January 3, 2012, and is now decommissioned. The antenna was removed and the orange and white radio transmitter building was dismantled in the summer of 2013.

Air shows

Air shows were held each June from 2004 through 2007. No air show was held in 2008 due to various ongoing airport construction projects. In 2009, the air show was converted into a fly-in event.Pictures from previous air shows can be found at
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References

External links

New Richmond Airport frequency
on LiveATC.Net
Airport website

Airnav - airport information

City of New Richmond

Aerial photos of the airport and New Richmond area
{{List of airports Airports in Wisconsin Buildings and structures in St. Croix County, Wisconsin