Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sonoma Valley Airport, known locally as Schellville Airport, is a small public-use airstrip in California's Sonoma Valley, four miles south of the town of Sonoma. It is a haven for vintage and classic aircraft, home to the Vintage Aircraft Company and the North Bay Air Museum, and pilots planning a visit should familiarise themselves with its special local procedures before arrival.
Sonoma Valley Airport, FAA identifier 0Q3 and known to locals as Schellville Airport, sits in the Sonoma Valley of California, about four miles south of the town of Sonoma. It is a public-use airstrip with a strong vintage-aviation character, hosting the Vintage Aircraft Company and the North Bay Air Museum, and its apron is regularly home to classic types including a Curtiss P-40, a North American SNJ-4, Boeing-Stearman PT-17 biplanes, a Globe Swift, a Cessna 195, a Douglas DC-3, a Dornier Do 27 and a Seabee amphibian. For a simulator pilot, the field offers an evocative slice of vintage American general aviation with a lively warbird and classic-aircraft scene, plus a notably wide range of aircraft performance to bear in mind when planning an approach.
The airport lies in Schellville, near Sonoma, in Sonoma County, California, roughly 4 nautical miles south of the town centre of Sonoma and about 27 nautical miles north of San Francisco. Nearby general aviation fields in the area include Sonoma Skypark a little over 2 nautical miles to the south, Petaluma Municipal Airport about 7.7 nautical miles to the east, and further afield Sonoma County Airport and Healdsburg Municipal Airport to the southeast.
Sonoma Valley Airport has two physical runways. Runway 07/25 is a hard-surfaced strip roughly 2,767 to 2,893 feet long depending on direction. Runway 17/35 is a shorter hard-surfaced strip of about 1,505 feet. Runway 17/35 is noted as restricted, requiring prior permission to use.
No communications frequencies are published for Sonoma Valley Airport; it has no ILS or other instrument approach facilities.
Flying hours run from morning civil twilight to evening civil twilight, with no night operations permitted. Ultralight and rotorcraft operations are not allowed, with the exception of MEDEVAC or law enforcement helicopters. Pilots new to the field are encouraged to become familiar with its special local features before operating there, given the wide variety of vintage aircraft performance encountered in the pattern.
The airfield is located four miles south of the town of Sonoma, and its Schellville locality name is a useful reference for pilots orienting themselves in the valley.
Sonoma Valley Airport was founded in 1946 by Wally Reichelt, with its first California-certificated runway opening in August 1959. The field has long cultivated an identity centred on vintage and veteran aircraft, reflecting one of its founding principles: a place where enthusiasts of classic aviation could gather. In 2012 the airport faced a threat from the proposed development of a fly-fishing business on adjoining land.
Today the airport is privately owned, by Chris Prevost and Sheryl Carlucci, and remains open to public use for light fixed-wing aircraft, though runway 17/35 requires prior permission to use. Fuel is self-serve. The field is home to the Vintage Aircraft Company, which offers flights in restored WWII-era open-cockpit Stearmans and an AT-6 Texan, and to the North Bay Air Museum, a flying museum that offers living-history flights in a dual-control 1943 Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. The airport holds public display days on the second full weekend of each month from March through October.
