The Catalina Island Conservancy, elected officials, and military leaders will gather on May 3, 2019, to celebrate the reopening of the Airport in the Sky.
The first plane to land on the newly refurbished runway will be a 1947 DC-3 originally owned by Philip K. Wrigley. Airspace will open to the public at 3 p.m. (PST).
The runway was repaired by Marines and Navy Sailors (Seabees) as a training exercise to prepare them for missions on islands and other remote destinations.
Nearly 200 Marines and Seabees were deployed to Catalina Island over a three-month period to replace the main runway’s asphalt with concrete for training. Units participating included I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) out of Camp Pendleton, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (3rd MAW) and Marine Wing Support Squadron 373 (MWSS-373) out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Naval Construction Group One (NCG1), First Naval Construction Regiment (1NCR) and Navy Mobility Construction Battalion (NCMB-25).
The Runway Repair Project was conducted as an Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) project through the Department of Defense. It provided the military with valuable construction training while benefiting the community of Catalina by ensuring the island’s only airport remains open to the public, according to officials.
The first plane that will land at the newly named ACE Clearwater Airfield was built in 1944 as a World War II surplus C-47 military transport. It was then converted to a DC-3 after the war. Philip K. and Helen Wrigley, who helped establish the Catalina Island Conservancy and donated most of their family’s Catalina Island property to the Conservancy, bought the plane in 1947. The original chairs, couches, tables and cabinetry are still part of the airplane. The DC-3 was later owned by a museum, an oil company, and privately. Alison Wrigley Rusack, Philip K. and Helen’s granddaughter, and her husband, Geoff, purchased the DC-3 in 2013 and, along with an airplane restoration firm, Aerometal International, restored its original 1947 appearance.
My signature photo was taken in 1989 on a flight from Orange County-John Wayne to the airport in the sky for a buffalo burger luncheon. The pilot of the plane from which the photo was taken flew F-4’s from aircraft carriers as a former Marine pilot. He lamented that there was much like landing on an aircraft carrier. I’ve flown there many many times.
Great place to land and go over to their restaurant to eat some of their Buffalo burgers! The view is fantastic!
A good use of taxpayer dollars. All those young people got some fabulous training. AVX gets a new lease on life. Win win all the way around.
My first date with my wife of 41 years was a flight from Palomar Airport to Catalina. I remember the DC3 used to come to Palomar and fill one tank with 80 octane and the other with 100. This was done to have fuel for planes that arrived at Catalina that didn’t have fuel enough to get home, since there was no fuel available otherwise at Catalina. Din’t forget buffalo burgers.
Just called the airport manager to confirm, open to public starting at 15:01PDT. Planning to check it out!!!
This is wonderful. I flew into AVX maybe 45 years ago in a friend of my dad’s Bonanza. We were in CA from the Midwest on vacation. It was the 2nd time in my life I had been on a private plane. Later in life I lived in S CA and spent many days in Catalina on my sailboat. It’s a wonderful place. Now back in the Midwest with my own plane I am seriously considering a cross country to CA that would not be complete without flying out to AVX. This is a bucket list airport for me. I’m glad they got it fixed up again.