Oroville Municipal Airport is 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 ...

located 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the city of Oroville in Butte County,

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Facilities

Oroville Municipal Airport covers and has two runways: * Runway 02/20: 6,020 x 100 ft (1,835 x 30 m), surface: asphalt * Runway 13/31: 3,540 x 100 ft (1,079 x 30 m), surface: asphalt Table Mountain Aviation is part of the Oroville Municipal Airport, which lies approximately southwest of downtown. The airport has two runways: Runway 02/20 (6,020 feet long by 100 feet wide) and Runway 13/31 (3,540 feet long by 100 feet wide). The runway system is anchored by three major parallel taxiways: * Taxiway A is a full-length located on the east side of Runway 02/20. * Taxiway J is a full-length located on the west side of Runway 13/31. * Taxiway R is a full-length located on the east side of Runway 13/31. Three main apron areas exist on the airfield. The largest is located around the Table Mountain Aviation FBO buildings. The FBO apron area is home to 38 tie-downs as well as the fuel tanks and provides access to Taxiway R to the west of the apron and Taxiway S to the north of the apron. The second largest apron area is located in the midfield area of the airfield, south of Runway 20. It is home to 76 tie downs. The third apron area is located east of the Table Mountain Golf Course, provides space for five tie downs, and is ideal for golfers that fly to the airport.

History

In 1936, the City of Oroville acquired of grazing land for use as a municipal airport. During 1941, the city and the

Works Project Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) extended the runways and increased the total airport land area to . In 1942, the War Department leased the Oroville Municipal Airport and renamed it Oroville Army Air Field (AAF). That same year the Army purchased an additional of land for expansion of the field and construction of a cantonment area. Once operational, it served as a fighter group training installation from spring of 1943 through early summer 1944. Two fighter groups rotated through Oroville AAF: the 357th Fighter Group (fighter group of famed pilots Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson) and the 369th Fighter Group. Aircraft present at the field were identified as the Bell P-39Q Airacobra, North American P-51B/C/D Mustangs, and possibly the North American A-36 Apache, the ground attack version of the P-51. Layout plans of the former Oroville AAF dated 1944 indicate a Bomb Storage Area west of the two runways and a skeet range between the southern extents of the runways. Fueling pit boxes were located along former Taxiways A (running parallel to runway 13/31) and C (connecting the southernmost ends of runways 02/20 and 13/31). A 1947 Inventory Report of Buildings and Structures states that bombs were stored in earth revetments. In 1945 Oroville AAF was listed as “temporarily inactive” under assignment to Air Technical Service Command and was later classified as surplus. In 1946 the War Assets Administration (WAA) assumed custody of the site and on 21 May 1947, the WAA terminated the U.S. Army's lease with the City of Oroville and returned ownership to civil authorities.

Incidents

On August 21, 2019, a

Cessna Citation Excel The Cessna Citation Excel is an American midsize business jet built by Cessna. Announced in October 1994, the Model 560XL first flew on February 29, 1996, certification was granted in April 1998, and over 1,000 have been delivered. The , 20,200 ...

operated by

Delta Private Jets Delta Private Jets, Inc. was an airline of the United States. Its corporate headquarters was on the property of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Boone County, Kentucky. It operated jet aircraft as a subsidiary of Delta Air Lin ...

bound for

Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city li ...

suffered a

runway excursion A runway excursion is a runway safety incident where an aircraft makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. Runway excursions include runway overruns, where an aircraft is unable to stop before it reaches the end of the runway. Runway excursio ...

at the departure end of Runway 02 after an aborted takeoff. After sliding sideways on its tires for , the jet impacted a small ditch at the end of some grassland surrounding the southern edge of the airfield where a small fire immediately began. After all ten occupants (two crew, eight passengers) safely evacuated, the fire quickly engulfed the aircraft, permanently damaging it. The aircraft fire spawned a rapidly-spreading grassland fire during one of the most deadly fire seasons the area had experienced in decades, creating a moment of panic due to its close proximity to an industrial park and populated areas but luckily, it was contained within an hour.For the full preliminary

NTSB 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 ...

report on this incident, se
NTSB Prelim Report for N91GY
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Statistics

For the year ending 31 December 2018, the airport had a total of 36,000 aircraft operations, which is an average of 99 movements per day; 56%

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 ...

(itinerant), 40% general aviation (local), and 4%

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 ...

. During this time, 47 aircraft were listed with Oroville Muni as their home base: 44 single-engined aircraft, 1

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, and 1

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

References

External links