Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, universally known to pilots as PDK, is a busy county-owned general aviation reliever field in Chamblee, Georgia, just northeast of downtown Atlanta. Built on the site of the World War I army post Camp Gordon and later home to Naval Air Station Atlanta, it is today the second-busiest airport in Georgia by operations and a key relief valve for Hartsfield-Jackson traffic. Its long ILS-equipped main runway and control tower make it a straightforward and rewarding destination for visiting simulator pilots.
DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK) is a county-owned, public-use general aviation airport in Chamblee, Georgia, on the northeastern edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. It functions as the principal reliever airport for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, absorbing corporate jets, flight training, charter operations and helicopter traffic that would otherwise congest the region's primary commercial hub. For a simulator pilot it offers a busy, tower-controlled GA environment with an ILS approach, a long hard-surfaced runway, and a strong sense of place given its origins as a World War I army camp and later a naval air station.
PDK sits in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Chamblee, just northeast of downtown Atlanta, and lies close to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the dominant airport of the region. Traffic in and out of PDK is worked by Atlanta Approach/Departure, reflecting its position within the wider Atlanta terminal airspace structure.
PDK has two physical runways. The main runway, 03R/21L, is 6,002 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting, and is equipped with an ILS on the 21L approach. The secondary runway, 03L/21R, is 3,755 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. The airport sits at an elevation of 988 feet.
PDK is served by Peachtree Tower on 120.9 MHz, which also doubles as the CTAF and clearance delivery frequency. Ground control operates on 121.6 MHz, ATIS broadcasts on 128.4 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. Atlanta Approach/Departure works arriving and departing traffic on 126.975 MHz. A Macon-associated radio outlet is listed on 116.6 MHz.
The airport operates 24 hours a day but is uncontrolled outside tower hours, becoming an untowered field from 11:00 pm to 6:30 am Eastern time Monday through Friday, and from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am on weekends; during these periods pilots should use the CTAF of 120.9 MHz for self-announced traffic calls. At other times, arriving and departing aircraft work with Peachtree Tower on the same 120.9 MHz frequency.
The airport occupies ground with a long military history. In 1917 the US Army established Camp Gordon at Chamblee, one of Georgia's largest World War I training cantonments, named for Confederate major general and later Georgia governor and US senator John Brown Gordon; troops trained there included future Medal of Honor recipient Alvin York. The camp closed and was sold off in the early 1920s. In 1940 the site was redeveloped as a military airfield, opening in March 1941 as Naval Air Station Atlanta shortly before US entry into World War II. Wartime barracks later became classrooms for the Southern Technical Institute, an engineering school created by Georgia Tech for returning servicemen, before both the naval air station and the technical institute relocated to the Marietta area in the late 1950s. The airfield was converted from military to civilian use between 1957 and 1959, becoming the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport known today. In more recent years the field briefly saw scheduled commercial service, with Ultimate Air Shuttle operating flights to Cincinnati's Lunken Field from 2017 and to Charlotte Douglas from 2019, before this was suspended in 2020.
PDK is a major general aviation reliever airport for metropolitan Atlanta, hosting corporate jets, charter operators, flight schools, aircraft maintenance businesses, personal aircraft and television news helicopters serving Atlanta's network-affiliated stations. The field has more than 100 hangars and multiple fixed-base operators, including a full-service FBO on the airport grounds, along with more than 100 aviation-related tenants. It remains the second-busiest airport in Georgia by flight operations, behind only Hartsfield-Jackson.