Tucked away down Apison Pike past Southern Adventist University, hobbyist aviators from Signal Mountain, Cleveland and beyond keep their small air crafts at the Collegedale Municipal Airport.
But some people in the community might not even know that the airport is there, and that’s a problem, said airport Director Chris Swain.
That may soon change. The Collegedale Airport is hosting a “ride day” when individuals have a chance to fly with a pilot for a fee on Sunday, Oct. 20, said Swain.
The event isn’t just for fun and an opportunity to get up in the air. The airport used to host open house events to let the community get to see and support the airport, but those events saw low attendance in the past.
“We do our best to get out in the community,” Swain said. “We thought this year we’d try to do a smaller event to see people out here.”
What better way is there to promote a small airport – one of the few towerless airports in Tennessee – than giving a people a chance to catch the bug and get interested in flying, Swain mused.
“It’s a lot of fun for everyone and people like coming out with the kids to see all of the airplanes,” he said. “We have around 100 air crafts kept here, and while we do have some business planes, most of them are private.”
The Collegedale Flight School will be offering ride-alongs for a fee, said Swain, while other groups like the Experimental Air Craft Association will be recruiting potential members.
“Many people don’t know that we started off as just a grass strip in 1965 for an aviation club,” Swain said of the airport itself. “Now we’re available as public use. We don’t get any federal funding but we’re still here and people still use us a lot.”