Vashon Municipal Airport is a municipal airport

Municipal Airport

Municipal Airport is a term used to describe an airport owned by a city or municipality. It is also the name of the following airports:*Municipal Airport in Unionville, Missouri, United States...

 on Vashon Island

Vashon Island

Vashon is a census-designated place in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon-Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. The population was 10,624 at the 2010 census. At , it is about 60 percent larger...

 in King County, Washington

King County, Washington

King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The airport is unique in being one of the few public airports in Washington State with only a grass runway.Other state owned public grass only runways exist in Washington, but not with hangars.

Facilities and aircraft

Vashon Municipal Airport covers an area of 20 acres (8.1 ha) at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 316 feet (96 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 and one helipad

Helipad

Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...

, both with turf

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

 surfaces: 17/35 is 2,001 by 60 feet (610 x 18 m) and H1 is 98 by 98 feet (30 x 30 m).
The airport contains a sculture commemorating a UFO sighting.

For the 12-month period ending September 1, 2009, the airport had 10,020 aircraft operations, an average of 27 per day: 99.8% general aviation

General aviation

General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 and 0.2% air taxi

Air taxi

An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...

. At that time there were 34 aircraft based at this airport: 91% single-engine

Aircraft engine

An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...

 and 9% ultralight.

External links

• Aerial photo as of 10 July 1990 from USGS The National Map