Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
DuPage Airport (KDPA) is a busy general aviation and business-aviation reliever field at West Chicago, Illinois, about 29 miles west of downtown Chicago, offering four runways including a 7,558-foot ILS-equipped main strip. Operated by the DuPage Airport Authority, it traces its roots to a 1920s grass strip and wartime naval flight training, and today hosts a 24-hour FAA control tower, a large FBO, flight training and a wide mix of corporate and piston traffic. Its size, twin ILS approaches and clear surrounding terrain make it a straightforward and interesting destination for simulator pilots flying in the Chicago area.
DuPage Airport, known locally as DPA, sits in West Chicago, Illinois, and functions as one of the principal reliever airports for O'Hare and Midway. It is owned and operated by the DuPage Airport Authority, an independent government body, and combines a substantial general aviation and business-jet operation with an on-site FBO, flight school, U.S. Customs facility and a 24-hour air traffic control tower. For a simulator pilot, its four runways, twin ILS approaches and position beneath busy Chicago airspace make it a rewarding field to fly into, whether arriving in a piston trainer or a corporate jet.
DuPage Airport lies within Class D airspace during tower hours, sitting under and near the shelf of Chicago's terminal airspace roughly 16 miles west of Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Because most traffic departs and enters from the west side of the field, arriving aircraft may be sequenced by approach control from as far as 8 miles out. The airport is administered as a reliever facility for both O'Hare and Midway, reflecting its role in absorbing general aviation traffic from the wider Chicago terminal area.
DuPage Airport has four physical runways. The primary runway, 02L/20R, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip of 7,558 feet with an ILS serving Runway 02L. Its parallel partner, 02R/20L, is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of 6,433 feet. A shorter hard-surfaced, lit runway pair, 10/28, measures roughly 4,733 to 4,734 feet, with an ILS serving Runway 10. The smallest runway, 15/33, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip of around 3,206 to 3,396 feet. Field elevation is 755 feet.
Pilots should expect to work Chicago Approach/Departure on 133.5 MHz, with the DuPage Tower operating on 120.9 MHz and Ground Control on 121.8 MHz. Clearance delivery is available on 119.75 MHz. ATIS and ASOS weather information broadcasts on 124.8 MHz, and Unicom is on 122.95 MHz for use outside tower hours or for FBO coordination. The airport is equipped with instrument landing systems serving both Runway 02L and Runway 10, giving low approach minimums thanks to the flat, largely undeveloped terrain surrounding the field.
The DuPage tower expects departing pilots to begin their turns at the runway end unless an early turnout is requested from the tower, and pilots requesting an IFR departure clearance should specifically use the phrase "IFR" when calling for takeoff clearance. Because most arrivals and departures use the west side of the airfield, inbound traffic may be vectored and sequenced by approach control well before reaching the field, sometimes as far as 8 miles out. Pilots should also be alert for deer, coyote, birds and migratory waterfowl on and around the airport, which can be a factor during approach and landing.
The airport is bordered by open farmland and the Prairie Landing Golf Club, which together with the absence of significant development in the approach areas gives clear, unobstructed sightlines to the runway complex from most directions. This open surrounding terrain, characteristic of the DuPage County countryside west of Chicago, serves as the principal visual cue for pilots inbound to the field under VFR.
DuPage Airport occupies former sheep-grazing land that was purchased by two Chicago entrepreneurs in 1927 and used initially as a grass barnstorming strip. In 1941 the U.S. Navy requisitioned the site, built brick hangars and paved two runways in an X pattern to train pilots for the Second World War, with the airport officially activated in March 1943. Both the wartime hangars and the original runway layout survive, although one of the original runways is now closed and forms part of a taxiway. Shortly after the Navy began operations, the Howard Aircraft Corporation opened a factory across the road and built more than 500 trainer, transport and air ambulance aircraft for the military, ferrying them across to DuPage for test flights. The Navy sold the airfield to DuPage County for one dollar in 1946, and the post-war years brought an east-west runway and a five-story control tower. Designated a general aviation reliever airport in the late 1970s, the airport authority undertook a major expansion through the 1980s and 1990s, deliberately acquiring a large buffer of surrounding land, growing the property from 900 acres in 1985 to 2,800 acres by 1992, partly to avoid the land-locked difficulties that had beset Midway Airport. The Air Classics Museum of Aviation was based at the field during the 1990s, and the airport attracted political controversy in the 1980s and 1990s over its spending.
DuPage Airport today is the only general aviation airport in Illinois with four active runways, two ILS approaches and a 24-hour FAA control tower, supporting a wide mix of corporate, air taxi and general aviation traffic alongside a small amount of military movement. It is served by the DuPage Flight Center FBO, which provides fuel, aircraft parking, de-icing and other transient services, and there is a flight school on the field offering flight training, aircraft rental and aerial tours. An on-site U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, opened in 2022, supports international arrivals. The airport also serves as headquarters for the Illinois Wing of the Civil Air Patrol and hosts more than forty aviation and non-aviation businesses across its 2,800-acre site.
