Nyal Williams

Alexandria Airport is named for Duane Knotts. Locals refer to it as Knotts Field rather than as Alexandria Airport. Personally, I prefer to do that in order to honor him and to keep in his and our minds the notion that it should remain an airport with his name attached. Officially, it is Alexandria Airport; the identifier is I99. .

Duane and his wife Margie are both enthusiastic about the airport and they are pleasant, friendly people. He has 27,000 hours flying time in all sorts of aircraft, but has never been in a glider. He was very interested in having a ride last summer at our aborted “Away Weekend” there, but the weather prevented that.

The airport is 3 miles SE of Alexandria at the corner of two Madison County roads 200E and 900N; it is on the edge of farm property owned by Mr. Knotts. The facilities are very attractive, and very well maintained -- from the brightly painted blue exterior of all the buildings to the interior of the office, pilot’s lounge, and the hangars. It is a jewel of an airport in a bean and cornfield setting. This airport was once a thriving business with steady charter flights for a helicopter and a Beech King Air. Business opportunities have dwindled in this area and the airport has had decreased activity in the last several years. The charter business is closed and the charter aircraft are gone. Instruction is no longer offered; just about a dozen airplanes are based there and these are used only for trips. It will be a great setting for a wandering glider club looking for a home! The Airport Facilities Directory, AOPA Airport Directory, and Jeppesen Guide Airport Directory offer complementary information, summarized in the following paragraphs.

Location is N40:14.0 W085:38.2. Paved EW runway 2591ft. with a nominal elevation of 900ft, the elevation is 894ft. at west end and 885ft. at east end – a 9ft. drop from west to east, spanning about 2/3 of the runway. Prevailing winds and this slope will almost dictate that most of our landings be made to the west.

The runway is 76 ft wide between the lights. Landing on the center line gives about 11ft. clearance on either side for the Blaniks, about 9ft. on either side for the Grob, and about 12-13ft. clearance on either side for a 15meter glider. This requires keeping precise control on final approach and touchdown all the way through rollout.

The pavement of runway 27 reaches to within 15ft. of County Rd 200E. (See Photo and note the displaced threshold). The threshold of Runway 27 is displaced 270ft; it is displaced 197 ft for Runway 09. We have a usable runway length of about 2400ft. with no trees or other obstructions except for traffic on the roads close to both ends.

The grass strip along the south side of the runway extends the full length of the paved runway. This strip is just 68ft. wide, however, from runway lights to the edge of the cultivated area. (Duane has commented that he would ask the tenant farmer to plant a few rows of beans along there instead of corn so that this strip could serve as a landing strip in an emergency.)

The grass strip on the north side of the runway is a bit wider (75ft.); however it does not run the entire length of the paved runway because of the T-Hangars. It is also somewhat rolling and could thus be used only in an emergency. Thus, our takeoffs and landings will be restricted for the time being to the hard surface.

These grass surfaces can be used for tow-out and retrieval of gliders, using a golf cart only, and when the field is not wet. Cars will not be allowed on any of these surfaces; none of the taildraggers at the airport have ever used the sod as a runway.

Duane tells us that the pattern altitude is 1700ft.., although no pattern altitude is officially published in the FAA Airport/ Facility Directory. He says they keep a tight, close-in pattern and that no one there flies the wide patterns which we are accustomed to seeing power traffic use at Terry Field. The AOPA directory (unofficial) says the pattern is at 1700ft. for light aircraft and 1900ft. for heavy aircraft. Duane told us that he flew the close-in, 1700ft pattern in the King Air. We will probably experiment a bit with the two altitudes before adopting a favored pattern altitude for the gliders. Duane expects the standard 45 degree entry to downwind. Note that the pattern is established officially as a left-hand pattern; a couple of publications have stated incorrectly that this airport uses a right-hand pattern.

Look at the photo of the hangar we will be occupying. Notice the smooth, flat concrete floor and the spaciousness of it all. We will be able to put all the club’s gliders and towplanes in this space by the using a dolly for each of the gliders. The hangar rent will be slightly higher than we have been paying, but this will be much more than offset by the thousands of dollars in expenses for wind, rain, and ice damage we have experienced in the open T-hangars in the past. Nothing short of a tornado should cause us any harm in this hangar!

Now, a sentence or two of caution: The Muncie Control Zone is 5nm (6 statute miles) to the east, and the Anderson Control Zone is 2.5nm (3 statute miles) to the south. Any venturing over these airspaces will require maintaining an altitude above 3400msl throughout that airspace. We will need to plot out some ground references showing the exact locations of these air spaces, and we will need to be careful about not encroaching upon them when flying near those areas.

Further, the traffic we experienced at Terry was generally low level traffic arriving at pattern altitude or slightly above. At Alexandria we will have traffic approaching from the west to Muncie and from the north to Anderson. Traffic departing these airports will be from the east and south. This traffic will be at a higher altitude and possibly will be moving faster. Their pilots might be distracted by getting information and directions from the tower at one of those airports. We must be alert more than ever for traffic around us.

By car, entrance to Knotts Field is from County Road 900N. (See Photo). Parking is restricted to the parking area at this entrance. The office and pilot’s lounge, with very nice restrooms, are to the right, and our hangar is the western-most part of this complex. We will be able to use these facilities when Mr. Knotts is there and has the office open. He will not always be around when we are flying and the office, lounge, restrooms, his own hangar, and the aircraft parts and mechanics office will be closed and locked. We are taking our PortaPotty so that some sort of toilet facility will always be available. The accompanying photos will help you to visualize our new home until you are able to make a personal visit to the site.

From Indianapolis there are two ways to go to Alexandria Airport/Knotts Field. From the east side of town take I-69 toward Ft. Wayne all the way to exit 41. (This is the second Muncie exit and it is marked Frankton/Muncie.)

Turn left (west) and drive 4 miles to CR 200E and turn right (north). Drive 1 mile to CR 900N and turn left (west). Drive ½ mile and the entrance will be on your left.

From the west side of Indianapolis it might be easier to take Hwy. 31 north toward Kokomo to CR 600S (the East Union Christian Church/ Lisa’s Pie Shop exit on right side of road).

Turn right and follow this road all the way through Atlanta and Frankton. (Before reaching Frankton, CR600S crosses Hwy 13/37 and immediately becomes CR 128.) Continue through Frankton on CR 128 until you reach Hwy 9.

Turn left (north) on Hwy 9 and drive 1 mile, to CR 900N, the first road headed right (east); there is an airport sign. Drive approximately 2 miles on this road and the airport will be on your right side.

Note: There are a couple of shortcuts in Frankton that I can describe for anyone who has driven through a couple of times. (I always take this route to Terry.) They would be confusing in this description; ask later after you have made the trip once or twice.