Departure
90%
vs 95% ▼ 6
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base sits on the southeastern edge of Tucson, Arizona, and is instantly recognisable to any pilot flying nearby for its vast rows of retired military aircraft in the AMARG
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base lies on the southeastern fringe of Tucson, Arizona, and is the home of the United States Air Force's 355th Wing, which provides close air support and forward air control training, notably on the A-10 Thunderbolt. The base is equally well known to aviation enthusiasts as the site of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, popularly called the Boneyard, where thousands of retired military aircraft are stored, reclaimed for parts, or preserved in the dry Sonoran Desert climate. For a simulator pilot, it is a striking destination thanks to its single very long runway and the sprawling fields of parked airframes visible on approach.
Davis-Monthan sits within Class C airspace serving Tucson, Arizona, a few miles from the city centre. Tucson International Airport lies close by, and traffic in the area is coordinated between the two fields' controlling authorities. The base occupies a large tract of desert land on Tucson's southeastern side, adjacent to the aircraft storage yards of AMARG.
The base has a single physical runway, 12/30, 13,657 feet long with a hard surface. It is lit and equipped with an ILS, making it usable in a wide range of weather conditions and reflecting its role as a major military airfield.
Radio services at Davis-Monthan include Approach/Departure on 119.4 MHz, with Tucson Approach/Departure also available on 38.13 MHz. The command post ATIS broadcasts on 27.01 MHz. Clearance Delivery and Ground share 121.8 MHz. PMSV Metro weather service is on 23.98 MHz, and PMSV PTD operates on 37.22 MHz. Tower operates on 118.85 MHz.
The most distinctive visual reference for locating the base is the AMARG storage and reclamation yard, whose rows of retired aircraft parked in the desert are visible for miles and unmistakable from the air. The base lies close to Tucson's city centre, on the southeastern side of the metropolitan area.
The site began life in the 1920s as Davis-Monthan Landing Field, a municipal airfield for Tucson established in 1925, before the Air Force expanded it with additional land in 1927. It was named in memory of two Army pilots, Samuel H. Davis and Oscar Monthan, both of whom died in flying accidents in the early 1920s. The base became a full Air Force installation in 1941 and played a major role in the Second World War as a training centre for heavy bomber crews, with around twenty bomber groups training on the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator at Davis-Monthan during the war.
Davis-Monthan remains an active United States Air Force base and headquarters of the 355th Wing, whose mission centres on close air support and forward air control, historically flown on the A-10 Thunderbolt. It also hosts the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the sole facility of its kind for reclaiming parts from and preserving excess U.S. military and government aircraft, a role made possible by Tucson's low humidity, low rainfall and alkaline soil.
