As always, we welcome your comments and ideas and of course, if your residential airpark isn’t listed or if you have information about other fly-in communities in the state for which we’re reporting, please email me.
Alabama has six airparks listed in the LWYP directory and Arkansas has eight. Interestingly one of those in Alabama was opened in 1957 and two came on line in 1975. Another opened for business in 1992 while one is under construction and the final one opened in 2006.
In Arkansas, all of the listed airparks have been opened since the turn of the century; a couple in 2000, one in 2001, two in 2002, two each in 2004 and one last year.
The Arkansas airparks are all located at elevations well under 1,000 feet MSL except one and it offers a 4,800-foot paved runway. All the others except one have unpaved runways with lengths ranging from a minimum ofr2,500 feet to the top end of 3,800 feet for a couple of them.
There are 72 lots at the largest of the Arkansas residential airparks while one boasts of 45 lots in the fly-in community and one other has 40 lots. Information from the other airparks reveals the following lot count: 31, 25, 24 and the smallest has only 14 home sites.
In Alabama, there aren’t any reported fly-in communities located at elevations above 1,000 feet MSL. As expected for airparks located at relatively lot elevations, runway lengths are mostly short, too. Two airparks in Alabama report runways of 3,000 feet each, one is 2,800 feet long, a couple come in at 2,500 feet, one is 2,300 feet and the other is only 2,000 feet long. Only one fly-in community reports a paved runway.
The communities in Alabama tend to have fewer residential lots on them. The largest number of home sites for a fl-in community in Alabama is 30 with two of them int aht category although one is under construction and claims 30-plus. Another reports 21 lots, one more says 20 lots and then there is one each at 10 and nine lots.
The Alabama fly-in communities include:
- Collier Airpark at Magnolia Springs
- Roy E. Ray Airpark, Irvington
- Beechwood Airpark, Huntsville
- Heart of Dixie Aero Estates, Greenville
- Lazy Eight AirPark. Wilsonville
- West Blount Aviation, Hayden
Those listed in Arkansas include:
- Fulmer Field Estates, Lonoke
- Holly Mountain Airparkat Clinton
- Tannenbaum Airpark in Drasco
- Winfield Airstrip Community at Altus – website: www.winfieldairpark.com
- Red Oak Airpark at Cabot
- Country Air Estates in Lonoke
- The Valley Airport in Cotter
- Sampley’s Airport, Aguila