Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Olympia Regional Airport (KOLM) is a general aviation field operated by the Port of Olympia, sitting just south of the state capital within the city limits of Tumwater. It offers an ILS-equipped runway, an on-field VOR, and a mix of flight training, business and cargo traffic, making it a useful and historically interesting stop for visiting sim pilots.
Olympia Regional Airport is a general aviation public airport owned and operated by the Port of Olympia, offering aircraft service and maintenance, flight instruction, hangar and tie-down space, and state and corporate aviation facilities. It is home to the Olympic Flight Museum, serves as a helicopter base for the regional air medical operator Airlift Northwest, and hosts Washington State Patrol aviation activity alongside fixed-wing and helicopter flight schools, giving it a varied traffic mix that includes light GA, training aircraft, helicopters, business jets and cargo flights.
The airport lies about 4 nautical miles south of the city of Olympia, within the city boundaries of Tumwater, Washington, and roughly one mile east of Interstate 5. The field is served by an air traffic control tower and sits under the arrival and departure structure used by Seattle Approach/Departure, with an on-field VOR that is also used by commercial traffic inbound to Seattle-area airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International.
Olympia Regional has two paved hard-surface runways. Runway 17/35 is lit, with runway 35 measuring 6,158 feet and runway 17 measuring 5,495 feet; runway 17 is served by an ILS. Runway 08/26 is a hard-surface runway of 4,162 feet in both directions.
Radio contact is available on CTAF/Tower 124.4 MHz, with Ground on 121.6 MHz. Seattle Approach/Departure works aircraft on 121.1 MHz. ATIS is broadcast on 135.375 MHz, with ASOS also available on 135.725 MHz, and UNICOM can be reached on 122.95 MHz. The field has an ILS instrument approach to runway 17, backed by an on-field VOR and a backup runway lighting and power system to support operations in poor visibility.
Voluntary noise abatement procedures have been established at Olympia Regional Airport, and pilots are asked to cooperate with these to minimise noise impact on airport neighbours, though air traffic control instructions and safety considerations may require deviation from them. Separate voluntary noise abatement procedures apply to seaplane operations using the floating dock at Swantown Marina.
Interstate 5 runs close by, about a mile to the west of the airfield, and the city of Olympia lies some 4 nautical miles to the north, with the airport itself located within Tumwater. These features, along with the airport's position relative to the Olympia VOR on the field, are useful for orientation when approaching from the surrounding area.
The airport was built in 1928 at a cost of $35,000, with a hangar constructed and later expanded during the 1930s as the field supported flight training and charter operations. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, it became a satellite of nearby McChord Field, and between July 1942 and August 1943 it was home to the 37th Flying Training Squadron of the 55th Pursuit Group, which operated P-43 Lancer and P-38H Lightning interceptors. The airport was returned to the City of Olympia in 1947. In the late 1990s its runway protection zone was extended through the purchase of land at each end of the primary runway, and an above-ground fuel facility was built. A further FAA-funded improvement project, focused on runway line-of-sight and taxiway and runway signage, was completed in September 2008 at a cost of $15 million.
Today the airport operates as a general aviation field with three flight schools providing fixed-wing and helicopter instruction, alongside aircraft and maintenance businesses, aerial photography and firefighting operations, and law enforcement and wildlife agency flying. As of 2020 it recorded 142 based aircraft across its two active runways. The Olympic Flight Museum is based on the field and, together with the airport, hosts an annual air show each June.