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Delaware Municipal Airport, also known as Jim Moore Field, is a city-owned general aviation airport three miles southwest of downtown Delaware, Ohio. It offers a single lit hard-surface runway and straightforward radio arrangements, making it a popular training and touring destination for pilots in the Columbus area.
Delaware Municipal Airport, known locally as Jim Moore Field, is a public general aviation airport owned and operated by the City of Delaware, Ohio. It lies about three miles southwest of downtown Delaware and serves as a base for local flight training, corporate activity, and pleasure flying, with a fixed-base operator on the field offering fuel and other services.
The airport sits in the Columbus, Ohio area and falls under the purview of Columbus Approach/Departure, which is reachable on 120.2 MHz. It is an uncontrolled field, so pilots should expect to coordinate with Columbus Approach/Departure for transit through the surrounding airspace and to self-announce on the local advisory frequency in the vicinity of the airport itself.
Delaware Municipal has a single physical runway, 10/28, a hard-surfaced strip 4,186 feet long that is lit for night operations. There is no ILS at the field.
Traffic at Delaware Municipal is handled on the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.7 MHz. An AWOS-3 automated weather observation station broadcasts on 119.025 MHz. Columbus Approach/Departure can be contacted on 120.2 MHz for arrivals, departures, and transiting traffic. No instrument landing system is available at the field.
The airport is located approximately three miles southwest of downtown Delaware, Ohio, which serves as the principal visual landmark for pilots inbound to the field.
The airport originated in the 1940s when it was built by E. J. Fitchhorn. The City of Delaware purchased 225 acres in May 1945 and began construction that autumn, though an early east-west paved runway was closed in 1952 due to unfinished work. Under new manager Henry Miller from August 1952, the airport gradually developed, and after the city sold surplus land in 1967 to fund improvements, the runway was extended from 2,000 to 4,100 feet, with the airport formally dedicated on 1 October 1967. The 1970s and 1980s saw changing fixed-base operators, funding disputes, and a lengthy master-planning process that eventually led to the runway being shifted some 230 feet south and further west to accommodate expansion, with construction breaking ground in July 1988. Later decades brought a paid airport manager from 1994, a federal grant for a new 5,000-foot runway in 1997, and debate over privatisation around 1999-2001. The Jim Moore Field name was added by early 2012, and a contract to extend the runway to 5,800 feet was signed by January 2016, though the project was delayed by taxiway-width issues. Two notable incidents on record include a Civil Air Patrol Ryan Navion crash shortly after takeoff on 26 March 1961 due to engine failure, and a Flight Design CTSW light-sport aircraft crash at the airport on 20 December 2019.
Delaware Municipal Airport, Jim Moore Field, remains a leading general aviation facility in central Ohio, home to roughly 100 based aircraft and handling an estimated 40,000 operations a year, including corporate flying, flight training, and recreational use. A fixed-base operator on the field sells both avgas and jet fuel and provides amenities such as hangars, a crew lounge, and rental cars. Pilots planning arrivals outside normal business hours, or requiring jet fuel purchase or pilot lounge access at those times, should arrange this in advance with the airport operations manager.
