Flight Simulator Flights at KFUL Fullerton Municipal Airport

Fullerton Municipal Airport is a City of Fullerton-owned general aviation field in the southwestern corner of Fullerton, Orange County, California, tucked against the junction of the Santa Ana (I-5) and Riverside (SR-91) Freeways. Dating from the 1920s and once host to Golden West Airlines commuter flights, it remains a busy training and touring base for private pilots across Southern California.

Overview

Fullerton Municipal Airport is a single-runway general aviation airport owned and operated by the City of Fullerton, sitting amid an industrial park in the southwestern part of the city and ringed by residential neighbourhoods. It is a popular destination for private pilots flying within California, with occasional traffic to and from Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and its control tower handles an average of 262 operations a day, making it one of the busier reliever airports in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Airspace & Location

The airport lies in Orange County, in the southwestern corner of Fullerton on Commonwealth Avenue, close to the interchange of the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) and the Riverside Freeway (SR-91). It sits under the influence of Southern California Approach/Departure, which handles arrivals and departures, and the field itself is served by its own control tower and ground control, indicating controlled airspace around the aerodrome. Nearby landmarks used for orientation include Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park and Disneyland in Anaheim.

Runways

Fullerton has a single physical runway, 06/24, 2858 feet long as runway 24 and 2687 feet as runway 06, with a hard surface and runway lighting on both directions. Runway 24 is equipped with an ILS approach.

Radio & Navigation

Air/departure traffic with Southern California Approach is worked on 125.35 MHz, with the airport's ATIS broadcast on 125.05 MHz. The common traffic advisory frequency and tower frequency are both 119.1 MHz, ground control operates on 121.8 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. A remote radio outlet to Riverside is listed on 122.45 MHz. The field has a control tower and an ILS approach serving runway 24.

Visual Reference Points

The airport is easily identified from the air by its position immediately northeast of the I-5/SR-91 freeway interchange, with Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park and Disneyland in Anaheim both useful landmarks for pilots orienting themselves toward the field from the west and south.

History

The site's aviation use dates back to 1913, when barnstormers and crop dusters used a former pig farm, later a sewer farm, as a makeshift landing strip. The airport's official founding came in January 1927, when the Fullerton City Council passed Ordinance 514 following a petition by William and Robert Dowling, with H. A. Krause and the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce; the chamber leased the land for five years at $1 per year and subleased operations to William Dowling and Willard Morris of Yorba Linda. The City of Fullerton took direct control of the airport in January 1941. In 1929 part of Howard Hughes's film Hell's Angels was shot at the field, and Hughes later bought land nearby for Hughes Aircraft, whose Ground Systems Group campus operated until closing in 2000. In 1949 Dick Riedel and Bill Barris of Fullerton Air Service, sponsored by the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, set a world flight endurance record from the airport, keeping their modified Aeronca Sedan, the Sunkist Lady, aloft for 1,008 hours and 2 minutes. A control tower, funded by the FAA and completed in 1959, was the first in Orange County. During the 1970s Golden West Airlines operated scheduled passenger service from Fullerton to Los Angeles International Airport using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters. After two accidents within eight days in 1992, the then-mayor of neighbouring Buena Park, Rhonda McCune, publicly called for the airport's closure, arguing that Fullerton reaped the economic benefit while Buena Park bore the risk; airport officials and pilots defended the field's safety record.

The Airfield Today

Fullerton Municipal Airport remains an active general aviation field with its own control tower handling an average of 262 operations per day. Several public-safety and emergency operators base helicopters on the field, including the California Highway Patrol, Anaheim Police Department, Orange County Fire Authority and Mercy Air. The airport's long-standing flight school, Aviation Facilities Inc. (AFI Flight Training), operated on the south side of the field west of the tower but closed in 2022.