Departure
89%
vs 95% ▼ 6
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Venango Regional Airport (KFKL), also known as Chess Lamberton Field, lies in western Pennsylvania a few miles southwest of Franklin and about ten miles southwest of Oil City, in Venango County, which owns and operates the field. It offers a full ILS approach to Runway 21 and two lit asphalt runways, making it a useful general-aviation stop for pilots transiting the region, despite the loss of its subsidised airline service in 2019.
Venango Regional Airport, historically known as Chess Lamberton Field, is a county-owned general aviation airport serving Franklin and Oil City in western Pennsylvania. It sits at 1,532 feet elevation and offers an instrument approach to one of its two runways, giving simulator pilots a modest but capable field for practising ILS approaches or flying VFR circuits in rural Allegheny Plateau terrain.
The airport is in Venango County, western Pennsylvania, about 2 miles southwest of Franklin and roughly 10 miles southwest of Oil City, both of which it serves. Nearby airports with published instrument procedures include Titusville Airport some 15 nautical miles to the north, Grove City Airport about 20 nautical miles southwest, Clarion County Airport around 21 nautical miles southeast, Port Meadville Airport about 22 nautical miles northwest, and Greenville Municipal Airport roughly 24 nautical miles to the west.
Venango Regional has two physical runways, both hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 03/21 is the longer of the pair at 5,200 feet, with an ILS serving the Runway 21 approach. Runway 12/30 is 3,584 feet long and also lit but has no instrument approach.
Youngstown Approach/Departure works arrivals and departures on 133.95 MHz. The field has an AWOS-3 automated weather observation broadcasting on 118.175 MHz. Clearance delivery is available on 126.25 MHz, and Altoona Radio can be reached on 109.6 MHz. For local traffic, CTAF/UNICOM operates on 122.7 MHz.
With no operating control tower, Venango Regional functions as an uncontrolled field, and pilots use the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.7 MHz to make self-announced position and circuit calls. Youngstown Approach/Departure on 133.95 MHz is available for those flying IFR arrivals or departures using the ILS to Runway 21.
Aviation in the Franklin area began in 1929 when local businessmen Wayne W. Bleakley and Joseph McElhinney, Jr. developed an interest in flying and built the district's first airfield in what was then Sugarcreek Township; a local corporation supported the field until it was abandoned in 1938. Local aviators subsequently flew from the Splane Memorial Airport in Oil City from 1941 to 1950. Construction of what became Chess Lamberton Airport began in 1950, with the field named after the grandson of Judge Robert Lamberton of Franklin, founder of the first bank in Venango County. Venango County has owned and operated the airport since 1959.
Today Venango Regional Airport covers 420 acres and remains a general aviation facility with around 40 based aircraft, the majority single-engine, alongside smaller numbers of ultralights, multi-engine aircraft, jets and a helicopter. In the year to December 2011 the field recorded roughly 14,800 aircraft operations, an average of 40 per day, split between general aviation, air taxi and a small proportion of military movements. Subsidised Essential Air Service flights to Pittsburgh, once operated under contract carriers, ended in October 2019, and as of the mid-2020s no scheduled commercial airline service operates from the airport.
