Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Chatham Municipal Airport (KCQX) sits on Cape Cod's southern shore, about two miles northwest of downtown Chatham, Massachusetts, and is best known among sim pilots for its single paved runway, coastal scenery and popular sightseeing operation. It is a non-towered, general-aviation field owned by the Town of Chatham, with a full-service FBO, flight school and maintenance shop on the field. Approaches over Pleasant Bay and the outer beaches, plus a pair of distinctive water towers marking the runway 24 end, make it a memorable VFR destination.
Chatham Municipal Airport is a small, general-aviation field on Cape Cod, owned and managed by the Town of Chatham through its Airport Commission. It hosts a full-service fixed-base operator, Cape Cod Flying Circus, along with an on-field maintenance shop (Stick N Rudder Aero Maintenance) and a flight school and sightseeing operation, Cape Aerial Tours, flying a Cessna Skyhawk and a Waco YMF5 biplane over the beaches, harbours and seal colonies of the lower Cape. For a simulator pilot the appeal lies in the single short runway, the busy mix of local training and sightseeing traffic, and the striking approach over Pleasant Bay and the National Seashore.
The airport lies in Barnstable County on the southern shore of Cape Cod, roughly two miles northwest of downtown Chatham, about 86 miles southeast of Boston and around 90 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island. It is accessible by road via U.S. Route 6, and the surrounding land use is a mix of general business and residential development. There is no control tower; traffic in the wider area is worked by Cape Approach/Departure, with clearance delivery handled on a separate frequency for IFR departures.
The field has a single physical runway, 06/24, 2,979 feet long with a hard, lit surface. There is no ILS.
Chatham has no tower and operates on a CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.8 MHz. Cape Approach/Departure works arriving and departing IFR and VFR traffic on 118.2 MHz, and IFR clearance delivery is available on 127.3 MHz, though this can be difficult to raise from the runway ends, sometimes requiring aircraft to taxi back toward the ramp to get a clearance. The ASOS broadcasts on 135.875 MHz. Pilot-controlled lighting is activated on 122.95 MHz, a separate frequency from the CTAF. Published instrument approaches include GPS, RNAV and NDB procedures, but there is no ILS (source: chathamairport.com/cqx-airport-information.html).
The airport's own information gives a pattern altitude of 1,068 feet. Pilots are advised to check the runway before departure, as large numbers of seagulls tend to gather on the surface during low overcast conditions and in the early morning and evening. The approach to runway 6 can experience a sink-hole effect caused by lift generated over a large parking lot about 200 feet from the runway threshold, so pilots are cautioned to anticipate this on final. The windsock should be checked directly, since reported ASOS winds can differ from actual surface conditions, and offshore fog is noted to move in over the runway very quickly (source: chathamairport.com/cqx-airport-information.html).
The first visible sign of the airport from five to ten miles out is a pair of water towers near the runway 24 end, painted with an orange-and-white checkered pattern on top and standing around 200 feet tall. These serve as a useful landmark for pilots inbound to Chatham (source: chathamairport.com/cqx-airport-information.html).
Chatham Municipal Airport is owned by the Town of Chatham and managed by the Chatham Airport Commission, whose stated mission is to support the field as a general-aviation facility focused on the needs of private pilots, aircraft owners, the flying public and aviation enthusiasts, alongside educational activities and community events. The airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, a category of field typically accommodating flight training, emergency services and charter passenger service (source: chatham-ma.gov/838/Airport-Users, chatham-ma.gov/507/Airport).
The field covers 105 acres and supports a mix of local and transient general-aviation traffic, averaging around 55 operations a day, split roughly 57 percent local general aviation, 40 percent transient general aviation, 2 percent air taxi and under 1 percent military; 37 aircraft are based there, comprising 34 single-engine types, two multi-engine aircraft and one helicopter (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Municipal_Airport). Cape Cod Flying Circus operates as the airport's FBO, running an on-site maintenance shop, Stick N Rudder Aero Maintenance, while Cape Aerial Tours provides flight instruction and sightseeing flights over Pleasant Bay, the lower Cape and Monomoy Island using a Cessna Skyhawk and a Waco YMF5 biplane. A restaurant and coffee company, Hangar B and B-Side, operate upstairs in the main building. Charter operators serving the airport include Skyline Flight, Tradewind, PlaneSense and LinearAir. Published operating hours are daylight hours, and loaner bikes are available on a first-come, first-served basis for visiting pilots and passengers.
