Jack Barstow Airport , also known as Jack Barstow Municipal Airport, is a city-owned, public-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 three

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Tod ...

s (6 km) northwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Midland, a city in

Midland County, Michigan Midland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 83,494. The county seat is Midland. The county's name is due to its closeness to the geographical Lower Peninsula's geographical cent ...

, United States. 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 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 2017–2021, 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. Although many 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 and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tarif ...

, this facility is assigned IKW by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA. A local chapter of the

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

(EAA) is located at Barstow Airport. Through the EAA’s Young Eagles program, annual aviation camps are held at the airport to educate youth.

History

The airport is named after local pilot John "Jack" Barstow, who lived in Midland and became adept at flying gliders in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. On April 29, 1930, Barstow established an unofficial world record endurance for gliders by soaring a Bowlus sailplane at Point Loma near San Diego for over 15 hours. As an instructor at the Bowlus Glider School, Barstow helped train Charles and Anne Lindbergh in gliding in 1930. The former Midland Airport was renamed Jack Barstow Municipal Airport shortly following Barstow's death in 1935, at the age of 29.

Facilities and aircraft

The airport covers an area of 512

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s (207 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 § ...

of 635 feet (194 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 '' ...

. It has 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 ...

paved

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 ...

s: 6/24 is 3,801 by 75 feet (1,159 x 23 m) and 18/36 is 3,001 by 75 feet (915 x 23 m). The aircraft has a fixed-base operator that sells

avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, ...

and offers amenities such as general maintenance,

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major servi ...

, courtesy transportation, rental cars, a conference room, a crew lounge, snooze rooms, and more. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2020, the airport had 16,000 aircraft operations, an average of 44 per day. They were all

. At that time there were 46 aircraft based at this airport: 30 single-engine and 3 multi-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 ...

, 2

helicopters 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 attribu ...

, and 1 jet.

Accidents and incidents

* On May 27, 2003, a

Cessna 172 Skyhawk The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.Cessna 150 The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 22-23. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 19 ...

collided with the terrain during a go-around at the Jack Barstow Airport. The student pilot reported he maintained an airspeed of 70 miles per hour with 20 degrees of flaps until he began the landing flare. He stated the airplane ballooned and drifted "slightly right" during the flare. He applied left aileron in an attempt to realign the airplane, but it veered to the left. He stated he then added full power at which time the airplane banked to the left. The left wing contacted the ground and the airplane cart wheeled, slid across a taxiway, and came to rest alongside a ditch. The probable cause was found to be the student pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during the go-around. * On July 16, 2014, a

Cessna 120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number *AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film *120 (MBTA bus) *120 (New Jersey bus) *120 (Kent) C ...

experienced a hard landing at Jack Barstow Airport. The pilot was flying an approach to landing at minimum airspeed because he intended to perform a short field landing, but after clearing trees on the approach end of the runway, a "significant sink rate" developed. The pilot applied power, but it was insufficient to arrest the descent rate. The airplane landed hard on the main wheels and the propeller impacted the grass runway. The airplane nosed over during the landing roll which resulted in substantial damage to the firewall and empennage. The probable cause was found to be the pilot's failure to maintain sufficient airspeed and his delayed application of engine power while on short final which resulted in a hard landing. * On August 3, 2018, a Brantly B-2A sustained an in-flight tail rotor blade separation and impacted terrain during an emergency landing at the Jack Barstow Airport. While operating 2,000 feet above the ground 1/4 mile from the airport, the pilot felt a "flutter" emit from the helicopter and heard a subsequent "bang" noise emit from the rear of the helicopter. The helicopter immediately turned 180 degrees to the right, the pilot reduced collective, and he was able to maintain control of the helicopter. The pilot increased the airspeed and maneuvered the helicopter for an emergency landing at the airport.

References

External links

Quality Aviation Services
the

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instructio ...

(FBO)
The National Map Viewer
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, ...

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-ga, IKW, - Airports in Michigan Buildings and structures in Midland County, Michigan Transportation in Midland County, Michigan