Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
CFB Trenton, home to 8 Wing of the Royal Canadian Air Force, is Canada's largest and most southerly air force base, sited on the Bay of Quinte within the city of Quinte West, Ontario. As the country's principal air transport hub it is a major operational field with a long runway and full ILS coverage, though civilian use is limited to emergencies and medevacs.
CFB Trenton (ICAO: CYTR, IATA: YTR) is a Canadian Forces base located within the city of Quinte West, Ontario, about 175 km east of Toronto. Operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, it is the hub for Canadian air transport operations at home and abroad, hosting 8 Wing as its primary lodger unit. It is Canada's largest air force base and its most southerly, and is classified by Nav Canada as an airport of entry, though for a simulator pilot it is chiefly of interest as a major military transport field with substantial infrastructure and a long, well-equipped runway. Civil use of the field is restricted to emergencies or medical evacuations.
The base lies on the Bay of Quinte, within the city of Quinte West, Ontario, roughly 175 km east of Toronto and close to the town of Trenton itself, a few nautical miles to the northeast. As a major military transport hub, it sits within controlled airspace appropriate to its status as an airport of entry, with the Canada Border Services Agency present to handle general aviation aircraft carrying up to 15 passengers in the limited circumstances where civilian traffic is permitted.
CFB Trenton has a single physical runway, 06/24, an asphalt strip that is hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 06 measures 9,974 feet and Runway 24 measures 8,978 feet, and both ends are served by ILS. Field elevation is 279 feet.
Radio services include an Aerodrome/Departure frequency on 128.4 MHz, ATIS on 135.45 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 124.35 MHz, an emergency/SAR channel on 23.21 MHz (Tiger SAR Ops), Ground on 121.9 MHz, a Wing Operations frequency on 122.35 MHz, PMSV Metro on 34.46 MHz, and Tower on 128.7 MHz. The field is equipped with ILS on both runway ends.
The base is a prominent landmark on the north shore of the Bay of Quinte, adjacent to the town of Trenton, with the long paved runway and extensive military ramp and hangar complex readily identifiable from the air.
The site was purchased by the federal government in 1929, comprising 960 acres of farmland near Trenton, to establish RCAF Station Trenton, which officially opened in August 1931; the Governor General, Lord Bessborough, laid the commemorative cornerstone, and the station adopted the motto "Per Ardua ad Rem" (Through Adversity to the Good). Originally conceived as a smaller support station to RCAF Station Borden, Trenton had by June 1937 overtaken Borden as the RCAF's primary flying training centre. The first air elements based there were No. 1 Fighter and No. 3 Army Cooperation Flights, flying Siskin and Tiger Moth aircraft. During the Second World War, Trenton became the largest training centre of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, hosting the RCAF Central Flying School, No. 1 Air Navigation School, No. 1 Flying Instructor School and No. 1 Composite Training School, alongside the No. 6 Repair Depot; its wartime relief landing field was at Mohawk. In the early 1940s the aerodrome had four hard-surfaced runways (1/19, 5/23, 14/32 and 9/27), all since superseded by the present single long runway. After the war, Trenton became home to transport and fighter aircraft, with aircraft from the base flying missions during the Korean Airlift and other operations through the 1950s and 1960s; on 2 February 1959, it received the Avro CF-105 Arrow diverted there after a Trans-Canada Air Lines Vickers Viscount crash-landed at Malton, temporarily closing that airport's runways. RCAF Station Trenton was renamed Canadian Forces Base Trenton following the 1968 unification of the RCAF, Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army into the Canadian Forces. In more recent history, the base's former commander, David Russell Williams, was arrested in 2010 and later convicted of serial rape and murder, some offences committed while he was in command. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CFB Trenton was used to quarantine Canadians repatriated from Wuhan and from cruise ships including the Diamond Princess and Grand Princess.
CFB Trenton remains Canada's largest air force base and the hub of Canadian Armed Forces air transport operations, home to 8 Wing and to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton, which coordinates aircraft and marine search and rescue across central and Arctic Canada. The base also hosts the National Air Force Museum of Canada and runs summer training courses for Royal Canadian Air Cadets. Civilian use of the airfield is permitted only for emergencies or medical evacuations, and prior permission would be required for any such use.
