Nevada County Air Park

Nevada County Air Park (ICAO: KGOO, FAA LID: GOO, formerly O17) is a county-owned public use airport in Nevada County, California, United States. The airport is located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Grass Valley, California.[1] It is also known as Nevada County Airport.[2]

Nevada County Air Park

Nevada County Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerNevada County
LocationGrass Valley, California
Elevation AMSL3,154 ft / 961 m
Coordinates39°13′26″N 121°00′11″W
Websitemynevadacounty.com/...
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
7/25 4,351 1,326 Asphalt
Statistics (2001)
Aircraft operations27,750
Based aircraft142
Source: FAA[1] and airport website[2]

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and IATA, this airport is assigned GOO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA[3] (which assigned GOO to an airport in Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia[4]).

History

The air park was first built by local entrepreneur Errol MacBoyle in 1933 in order to fly gold mined by his Idaho–Maryland Mine Corporation to Mills Field, now known as San Francisco International Airport, from where it was trucked to the San Francisco Mint. The airport was closed down at the onset of World War II due in part to the government shutdown of mining operations along with the wartime ban on civilian flight within 150 miles of the coast of California. The airport property was purchased from the MacBoyle estate by Charles Litton Sr. in 1955. Litton had previously moved his company's engineering laboratory to Grass Valley in 1953. After acquiring the property, Litton spent $10,000 to repair the runway that had fallen into disrepair and partnered with local government and businesses through the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce to reopen the airport and build an industrial park in order to attract new business to the region. The airport was reopened in 1956 and renamed Loma Rica Airport. The United States Forest Service and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection began utilizing the airport as a base for their wildfire air attack operations in 1958. A major renovation took place in 1965 when the landing strip was lengthened to 4,000 feet (1,200 m). In 1994 a 3000 square foot terminal was added and the following year the landing strip was again extended.

Facilities and aircraft

Nevada County Air Park covers an area of 117 acres (47 ha) at an elevation of 3,154 feet (961 m) above mean sea level. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 7/25, which measures 4,351 by 75 feet (1,326 x 23 m).[1]

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2015, the airport had 27,750 aircraft operations, an average of 76 per day: 96% general aviation and 4% air taxi. At that time there were 142 aircraft based at this airport — 95% single-engine, 4% multi-engine and 1% helicopter.[1]

References
  1. FAA Airport Master Record for GOO (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2009-07-02.
  2. Nevada County Airport page at Nevada County Web site
  3. Great Circle Mapper: KGOO - Grass Valley, California - Nevada County Air Park
  4. Aviation Safety Network: GOO / YDGI - Goondiwindi Airport, QLD, Australia
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