Departure
91%
vs 95% ▼ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Meadows Field is a busy, tower-controlled airport three miles northwest of downtown Bakersfield in California's San Joaquin Valley, mixing scheduled airline service with general aviation, business jets and a resident flight school. Its long asphalt runways and full ILS make it a straightforward and useful destination for a simulator pilot practising airline or GA operations in the Central Valley.
Meadows Field, also historically known as Kern County Airport No. 1, is the principal airport serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area and one of only two significant airports in the San Joaquin Valley, the other being Fresno Yosemite International. It sits in unincorporated Kern County adjacent to Oildale, a short distance northwest of downtown Bakersfield, and today handles a mix of airline, general aviation, business, military and air ambulance/law enforcement helicopter traffic alongside a based flight school, making it an interesting and varied field for a VFR or IFR arrival in the simulator.
Meadows Field lies three miles northwest of downtown Bakersfield, in Oildale, Kern County, California. Los Angeles Center provides overlying en route control on 127.1 MHz, with Bakersfield Approach/Departure handling arrivals and departures on 118.8 MHz (south sector initial contact), 118.9 MHz (north sector initial contact) and 126.45 MHz for departures. Shafter Airport-Minter Field lies about eight miles to the northwest and Bakersfield Municipal Airport about seven miles south-southeast, so pilots should be alert for other traffic in the vicinity when operating in the local area.
Meadows Field has two parallel asphalt runway pairs, both hard-surfaced and lit. The main runway, 12L/30R, offers 10,824 ft in the 12L direction and a published 7,395 ft for landing on 30R, which is equipped with an ILS. The parallel runway, 12R/30L, offers 7,716 ft in the 12R direction and 4,326 ft for landing on 30L.
Bakersfield Tower operates on 118.1 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF. Ground control is on 121.7 MHz, and the ATIS broadcasts on 118.6 MHz. Bakersfield Approach is reached on 118.8 MHz (south sector) or 118.9 MHz (north sector) for initial contact, with departures worked on 126.45 MHz. A Rancho remote radio outlet is available on 122.45 MHz, and Unicom is on 122.95 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS serving runway 30R.
Meadows Field is a tower-controlled airport, and arriving and departing traffic should expect to work Bakersfield Approach and Tower rather than operate an uncontrolled circuit; inbound pilots should establish contact with Bakersfield Approach on the appropriate sector frequency before entering the surrounding airspace.
Aviation activity in Kern County dates back to 1891, when Charles Howard made a hot air balloon ascent and parachute descent, and aircraft began arriving in the county from 1910 under the sponsorship of Glenn Curtiss and the Kern County Board of Trade, with the first local flight made by Charles Hamilton. Bakersfield initially had two airfields, the more prominent being Bernard Field at Sacramento and Monterey streets in East Bakersfield, which served as a US Air Mail stop from 1923 until that role transferred to Meadows Field in 1926. In 1926 the Kern County Chamber of Commerce built and operated a new airport, Kern County Airport No. 1, originally sited at the junction of US Route 99 and Norris Road before being relocated one mile east to its present location the following year; the original facility had a single runway, one terminal building and a few hangars. Kern County purchased the airport from the Chamber of Commerce in 1935, becoming the first county-owned airport in the nation. From 1941 the Army Air Corps directed improvements to the field, including tower operations, and in late 1943 the United States Army Air Forces acquired usage rights, placing it under IV Fighter Command. The 481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group used the airfield as an auxiliary training site, flying modified Douglas A-20 Havoc (P-70) and prototype Northrop YP-61 Black Widow night fighters; the 427th Night Fighter Squadron trained there between May and July 1944 and the 549th Night Fighter Squadron between July and October 1944, with detachments of the 426th, 547th, 548th and 550th squadrons also passing through that year before deployment to the Pacific and China-Burma-India theatres. The 481st NFOTG was inactivated in December 1944 and the field placed on standby status under Hammer Field's control. After the war Meadows Field returned to civil use, and in the mid-1950s Kern County modernised the site, building a new terminal and control tower in 1957 to the east of the runway. That year the airport was renamed Meadows Field in honour of Cecil Meadows, the county's Director of Airports from 1935 to 1957 (apart from wartime service as a military pilot), who had been instrumental in the county's purchase and modernisation of the field. A Republic XF-84H Thunderscreech experimental turboprop fighter was displayed at the former terminal entrance until 1992, when it was moved to the National Museum of the United States Air Force and replaced by a USAF T-38 Talon, which was itself relocated to the Minter Field Air Museum at Shafter Airport in 2015.
Meadows Field remains the main commercial airport for the Bakersfield area, handling a diverse mix of traffic that includes scheduled airline operations, general and business aviation, military movements, air ambulance and law enforcement helicopters, and a flight school based on the field. It is classified by the FAA as a non-hub primary commercial service facility, and recorded 194 based aircraft as of 2021.
