Voss Airport, Bømoen ( no, Voss flyplass, Bømoen) is 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 ...

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 on the former Bømoen Base in

Vossevangen Vossevangen or Voss is the administrative centre of Voss municipality in Vestland county, Norway. Location The village lies on the northeastern shore of the lake Vangsvatnet in the central part of the municipality, about east of the city of Berg ...

Voss Municipality Voss () is a municipality and a traditional district in Vestland county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages include Bolstadøyri, Borstrondi, Evanger, Kvitheim, Mjølfjell, Opphe ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The airport consists of an asphalt

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 ...

designated 09/27. The municipal airport is used by the helicopter operator Fonnafly as well as for

hanggliding Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

parachuting Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

and

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

activities. The airport was built by the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...

in 1935. It was taken over by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, resulting in a new and longer runway being built. Since 1958 there has been civilian aviation at the airport. The annual Extreme Sport Festival has used the airport since 1998. It is accessible by a spur of County Road 307.

History

Bømoen Base was established by the Norwegian Army in 1899, replacing older bases in

Vik Vik (Old Norse: vík) means wick or bay in Norwegian and Swedish (''vig'' in Danish), and it may refer to the following: Places Iceland *Vík í Mýrdal, a village in southern Iceland Iran *Vik, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran Norway *V ...

and

Lærdal Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell Kong ...

. The

Bergen Line The Bergen Line or the Bergen Railway ( no, Bergensbanen or nn, Bergensbana), is a long scenic standard gauge railway line between Bergen and Hønefoss, Norway. The name is often applied for the entire route from Bergen via Drammen to Oslo, ...

was being constructed and by placing a base on the railway it would be possible to have quick access to

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region o ...

. This was considered important at the time because the main threat of war at the time was with Sweden. The airport was established in 1935, when the Norwegian Army Air Service built a small airfield, aligned southwest–northeast.Hjelmeland: 109 Bømoen was taken over by Luftwaffe with the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

on 9 April 1940. Work with expanding the airport commenced in May, and was conducted based on the need for defending

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

. By 1941 work on the airport was stopped, as the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

decided to instead build

Herdla Airport Herdla Airport ( no, Herdla flyplass; german: Flugplatz Herdla) was a military air base situated on the island of Herdla in Askøy, Norway. It consisted of two wooden runways, long, respectively, in addition to wharfs for a water aerodrome. Her ...

. By then Bømoen had received a runway with sections in concrete and others in wood.Hafsten: 315 This work involved moving the runway and giving it an east–west alignment. The airport proved to have poor landing conditions and was after the opening of Herdla in diminutive use. No airborne units were ever stationed at Bømoen. Voss Flyklubb was established in 1958 with its home at Bømoen. In 1960 it organized its first sailplane gathering there. Bømoen soon developed into an important center for sailplane flights, and attracted participants from throughout Hordaland and

Valdres Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Slidre ...

. The high interest for sailplanes lasted through the 1960s. Thereafter Os Airport, Vaksinen reopened and the local recruitment stagnated. From the 1970s Os Aero Club took over the gatherings, organizing two annual gatherings, in Eastern and during the summer. These constituted the club's main training activities. The first edition of the Extreme Sport Week took place in 1998. The

Norwegian Defence Estates Agency The Norwegian Defence Estates Agency ( no, Forsvarsbygg) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the real estate belonging to the Military of Norway. It is not part of the military operations, but is instead directly subordinate to the N ...

sold Bømoen Base in 2013 to the company Bømoen AS. During the negotiations the municipality attempted to secure purchasing only the airport, but no the rest of the base. At the time the municipality had an agreement which secured a lease until 2023. An agreement was struck whereby the municipality was granted a land lease until 2073 for consisting of the runway, taxiways and the apron.

Facilities

Voss Airport, Bømoen is located on the premises of the Bømoen Base, about east of

. The aerodrome consists of an asphalt runway measuring and aligned 09/27 (east–west). The airport has a reference elevation of

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. Air navigation consists of two

VOR/DME In radio navigation, a VOR/DME is a radio beacon that combines a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) with a distance-measuring equipment (DME). The VOR allows the receiver to measure its bearing to or from the beacon, while the DME provides the slan ...

beacons. Skydive Voss has an club house at the airport, which in addition to course and technical facilities has accommodation for eighteen people. Fonnafly has a base and hangar at Bømoen. The helicopter operates has a

Eurocopter AS350 Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Its head office is located at Marseille Provence Ai ...

stationed at the airport. Clubs based at the airport consist of Skydive Voss, and the aviation club Voss Flyklubb. Bergen Skydiving Club uses Bømoen during the summer. Every June the Extreme Sport Festival is organized in Voss. The airport plays a central sole for several of these events, including parachuting and hanggliding. The airport is limited to aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of as well as helicopters. Flight is only permitted during daylight with

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

. Most parachuting and sailplane activity takes place during the period May through September. The runway closes during the winter during periods of snow.

Accidents and incidents

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.

crashed on 27 June 1987, killing two and seriously injuring two. The accident took place during a failed abortion of an approach, causing the aircraft to crash into the forests near the airport.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voss Airport, Bomoen Airports in Vestland Luftwaffe airports in Norway Royal Norwegian Air Force airfields Voss 1935 establishments in Norway Airports established in 1935 Military installations in Vestland