Camarillo Airport

in 1951 to accommodate what by then had developed into Oxnard Air Force Base. The airport runway was further extended in 1959 to accommodate jet fighter aircraft such as the Northrop F-89 and McDonnell F-101B, used as part of the Los Angeles area Air Defense network.Fact|date=March 2007 In Mid-1960s the base received 17 new F-106 Delta Darts. On January 1 1970, Oxnard AFB was deactivated and the base became surplus property. Oxnard had 99 Officers and 990 enlisted assigned prior to its closing. The last commanding officer of the 414th Fighter Group was Colonel Paul D. Cofer.

In the years following, the County of Ventura actively pursued the acquisition of the former military base property from the Department of Defense for commercial airport use, opposed primarily by local residents concerned about the noise of growing commercial traffic. In 1976, the transfer of the airport was finally approved (provided the runway length was shortened to 5,000ft) and was formally opened by Channel Islands Aviation (www.flycia.com). By 1985, was entirely managed by the Ventura County Department of Airports. [ [http://www.ventura.org/airports/cmamain.htm History of Camarillo Airport] ]

Facilities and aircraft

Camarillo Airport covers an area of 650 acres (263 ha) and contains one runway (8/26) which measures 6,013 x 150 ft (1,833 x 46 m). For 12-month period ending June 5, 2006, the airport had 153,360 aircraft operations, an average of 420 per day: 98% general aviation, 2% air taxi and <1% military. There are 600 aircraft based at this airport: 84% single engine, 8% multi engine, 5% ultralights, 3% jet aircraft and 1% helicopters. It is an FAA-towered facility and there are three Fixed Base Operators are headquartered at the airfield.

*The [http://cuckoo.com/daniel/pictures/ga-socal-20050728/IMG_3521 Waypoint Cafe] is a restaurant that is adjacent the runway on the airport property.

* [http://www.cap.gov/index.cfm Civil Air Patrol] Camarillo Composite Squadron 61 is based at this airfield, located near Sky Blue Air, at the east end of the airport.

* [http://www.flycia.com/ Channel Islands Aviation] is a FBO located near the end of the Alpha taxiway, and has been a fixture at Camarillo Airport since the beginnings of the facility as a public-use airport.

* [http://www.sunairjets.com/ Sun Air Jets] recently completed construction (2005) of a full-service corporate jet FBO facility on the north-end of the airport near the end of the Charlie taxiway.

* [http://www.westerncardinal.com/ Western Cardinal] is a Camarillo-based FBO located between the Golf 1 and Golf 2 taxiways, and built as the second major FBO to serve the airport in the 1980’s.

The Ventura County Fire and Sheriff's Departments each support large, separate facilities at opposite ends of the field to support new recruit and recurring refreshment training.

ee also

* Western Air Defense Force (Air Defense Command)

References

External links

* [http://portal.countyofventura.org/pls/portal/url/PAGE/AIRPORTS/CAMARILLO%20AIRPORT/ Camarillo Airport] at County of Ventura web site
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