Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Wiley Post Airport is a busy general aviation and business aviation field on the northwest side of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, serving as the FAA-designated reliever for Will Rogers World Airport. Named after pioneering aviator Wiley Post, it offers three runways, including a 7,200-foot ILS-equipped strip, and supports over 300 based aircraft ranging from piston singles to corporate jets.
Wiley Post Airport (KPWA) is a city-owned, public-use airport in northwest Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, operated by the Oklahoma City Airport Trust. It is the FAA-designated reliever airport for Will Rogers World Airport and functions primarily as a centre for general and corporate aviation, with no scheduled passenger service. The field is named after Wiley Post, the aviator who became the first pilot to fly solo around the world, and its mix of long paved runways, ILS approaches and resident aviation businesses makes it a useful and interesting destination for a simulator pilot exploring the Oklahoma City area.
The airport lies about seven nautical miles (roughly eight statute miles) northwest of downtown Oklahoma City and around ten miles from Will Rogers World Airport, the city's primary commercial airport. Wiley Post sits at an elevation of 1,283 feet and covers some 1,143 acres on the city's northwest side.
Wiley Post has three physical runways, all hard-surfaced and lit. The primary runway, 17L/35R, is 7,203 feet long and equipped with an ILS approach. A parallel runway, 17R/35L, measures 4,994 feet, also lit but without an instrument approach. A third, roughly east-west crosswind runway, 13/31, provides 4,557 feet available in the 13 direction and 4,553 feet in the 31 direction, both lit.
The airport has an air traffic control tower, though it operates on a part-time basis; Wikipedia notes the tower is open daily from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Runway 17L/35R is served by a precision ILS approach, giving pilots an instrument option onto the field's longest runway.
The current Wiley Post Airport site was originally built in 1942 as Tulakes Airport, a wartime auxiliary field supporting overflow military traffic for the nearby Will Rogers Field. After the Second World War, as Will Rogers Field transitioned to civilian service with larger, faster aircraft, Tulakes Airport took on the role of serving smaller general aviation traffic. In 1961 it was renamed Wiley Post Airport. This was not the first airfield to carry the name: an earlier Wiley Post Airport had existed about five miles to the northeast, at the northwest corner of May Avenue and Britton Road, on a site originally built as Curtiss-Wright Field in 1928 and renamed Wiley Post Airport in 1941 before closing in 1955 and being redeveloped for housing. The airport's namesake, Wiley Post, was the first pilot to fly solo around the world and died in the same 1935 Alaska air crash as humorist Will Rogers, after whom Oklahoma City's other major airport is named. On March 4, 2008, a Cessna Citation I operating from the airport crashed 4.1 miles southwest of the field shortly after takeoff, following wing damage caused by bird strikes; all five occupants were killed.
Wiley Post today serves as a hub for business, corporate and general aviation in Oklahoma City, with more than 300 aircraft based in its leased hangars, ranging from single and twin-engine piston aircraft to turboprops and jets. In the year ending July 7, 2021, the airport logged 55,293 flight operations as recorded by its control tower. Fuel and full aircraft services are available from fixed-base operators on the field, including providers offering both 100LL and Jet A. The airport also supports aviation-related industry alongside its general aviation and corporate flying activity.
