Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
West Virginia International Yeager Airport (KCRW) sits atop a hill on the eastern edge of Charleston, West Virginia, roughly three miles from the state capital's downtown. It is a Class C, tower-controlled field with a single main runway, home to airline service, a busy general aviation and flight-training community, and the West Virginia Air National Guard's 130th Airlift Wing.
Yeager Airport is the principal airport serving Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, and is owned and operated by the Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority. It combines scheduled airline service with a significant general aviation, flight-training and military presence, hosting the West Virginia Air National Guard's 130th Airlift Wing and its C-130 Hercules aircraft. For a visiting VFR pilot the field is notable for its dramatic hilltop setting, its Class C controlled airspace, and its history as the airport named for local aviation legend Chuck Yeager.
Yeager Airport lies on a hilltop over 300 feet above the surrounding valleys of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers, about three miles east of downtown Charleston, West Virginia, in unincorporated Kanawha County. The hill drops away sharply on all sides of the field. The airport is served by Charleston Approach/Departure and Charleston Tower and operates within Class C airspace, with clearance delivery and ground control also provided.
Yeager Airport has a single hard-surfaced, lit runway aligned 05/23, equipped with ILS approaches to both ends; published landing lengths are 6,611 feet on Runway 05 and 6,289 feet on Runway 23, the difference reflecting a runway safety area at the Runway 05 end. Field elevation is 922 feet.
Charleston Approach/Departure works on 128.5 MHz, with the ATIS broadcasting on 127.6 MHz. Clearance delivery (CLD) is on 118.55 MHz, and ground control on 121.8 MHz. Charleston Tower operates on 125.7 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. An Air National Guard command post/operations frequency is published at 30.23 MHz, and an Elkins Radio frequency is listed at 122.2 MHz. The airport is equipped with ILS approaches serving Runway 05/23.
Yeager is a controlled aerodrome within Class C airspace, with Charleston Tower, Approach/Departure and Clearance Delivery all in operation, so arriving and departing traffic should expect full ATC handling rather than a self-announced circuit join. An Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS) is installed at the end of Runway 5, built to provide the safety-area equivalent of a 1,000-foot runway overrun area, which pilots should be aware of given the field's exposed hilltop location.
The airport sits prominently on a hilltop, with the hill falling away sharply on all sides above the valleys of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers. Arriving pilots and passengers get a clear view of downtown Charleston to the west and the rolling hills to the north and east, both useful visual cues when inbound to the field from the Charleston area.
Charleston's original airport, Wertz Field, closed during the Second World War when its approaches were obstructed by construction of a federal synthetic rubber plant, and plans were already in hand for a replacement. Construction of the new airport began in 1944 on Coonskin Ridge, and it opened on 1 December 1947 as Kanawha Airport, with American Airlines service beginning that December. A terminal was built in 1950. In 1985 the airport was renamed in honour of then-Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, a native of nearby Lincoln County and the pilot of the world's first supersonic flight in the Bell X-1; the terminal was renovated the following year. The airport originally had a secondary runway, 15/33, headed 335 degrees and 4,750 feet long, used mainly by general aviation; this was closed in 2008, becoming taxiway C, to allow expansion of Air National Guard hangar space and general aviation facilities. In 2021-2022, following completion of a US Customs building serving the general aviation area, the airport adopted its current name, West Virginia International Yeager Airport.
Yeager remains West Virginia's busiest commercial service airport, combining scheduled airline flights with a substantial general aviation, air taxi and military operation; in the year to November 2022 the field handled an average of about 104 aircraft movements a day, split roughly 63 percent general aviation, 15 percent military, 13 percent air taxi and 9 percent airline. The West Virginia Air National Guard's 130th Airlift Wing is based at the airport's McLaughlin Air National Guard Base with its C-130 Hercules aircraft. Marshall University's Bill Noe Flight School was established at the airport in 2021, with its own academic building, hangar and apron. The airport has a full-service fixed-base operator for general aviation traffic, and prior permission may be required for some visiting aircraft.
