Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport, formerly Thermal Army Air Field, is a county-owned general aviation airfield in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, California, about 20 nautical miles southeast of Palm Springs. Lying some 121 feet below sea level, it offers two long paved runways and uncongested airspace, making it a useful base for pilots visiting the Desert Resorts area around Indio and La Quinta.
Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport serves the southeastern Coachella Valley from the town of Thermal, California, and is owned and operated by Riverside County. Built during the Second World War and renamed in 2004 to honour aviator Jacqueline Cochran, it today functions as a general aviation field handling business, training and transient traffic, of interest to simulator pilots for its long runways, low-lying desert setting and uncongested surrounding airspace.
The airport sits in the lower Coachella Valley of central Riverside County, an area known as the Desert Resorts Region, about one mile west of the California State Route 86 expressway and six miles south of Interstate 10. It is roughly 20 nautical miles southeast of the Palm Springs central business district and around ten flying minutes from Palm Springs International Airport. The communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Coachella, Indio and Thermal surround the field, and the operator describes the airport as positioned within uncongested airspace suited to direct departures toward Arizona, Las Vegas, Mexico and other western US destinations.
The airfield has two paved physical runways. Runway 17/35 is 8,502 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting, and runway 12/30 is 4,957 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. There is no ILS. Field elevation is 121 feet below mean sea level, reflecting the airport's location in the below-sea-level Coachella Valley.
Pilots should expect to work Palm Springs Approach/Departure on 135.275 MHz. The automated weather observation (ASOS) is available on 118.325 MHz, and Riverside Radio can be reached on 122.3 MHz. The airport's common traffic advisory frequency and unicom is 123.0 MHz.
Useful landmarks for locating and approaching the field include the California State Route 86 expressway roughly a mile to the east, Interstate 10 about six miles to the north, and Highway 111 to the west; the airport is also bordered by Airport Boulevard and Harrison Street. The surrounding Coachella Valley communities of Indio, Coachella and La Quinta provide further orientation for pilots inbound from the Palm Springs area.
The airfield was established in August 1942 as Thermal Ground Support Base, or Thermal Army Air Field, at the start of the Desert Training Center exercises in the Mojave Desert intended to prepare US Army ground forces for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, under the command of General George Patton. The 2,553-acre facility originally had two 5,000-foot runways and was assigned to Fourth Air Force; between March 1943 and May 1944 it hosted the 76th Reconnaissance Group and associated liaison and tactical reconnaissance squadrons before being reassigned to the California-Arizona Maneuver Area under Third Air Force. Because the Coachella Valley site lies 115 feet below sea level and summer temperatures reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, flight operations in summer were conducted between 0300 and 1300 to avoid the worst heat. After the Army drew down operations in 1944, the US Navy occupied the base from December of that year as Naval Air Bases Detachment Thermal, carrying out extensive rebuilding through ACORN and Seabee units; the station supported aircraft such as the F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair, TBM Avenger, SB2C Helldiver and SBD Dauntless, and included a hospital and accommodation for over 2,600 personnel. The Navy closed the base in November 1945, it was declared surplus later that year, and civil control was established in 1947 to 1948, with the County of Riverside taking title in December 1948. As a civilian airport it was known as Thermal Airport from 1948 to 1998, then Desert Resorts Regional Airport, before being renamed in 2004 in honour of pioneering aviator and Indio resident Jacqueline Cochran.
The airport today covers about 1,850 acres and supports general aviation training, business and transient traffic, with around 127 aircraft based on the field, comprising 100 single-engine aircraft, 15 multi-engine aircraft, five jets and two helicopters. Between November 2022 and March 2023 average daily operations ran at about 150 movements, split roughly 62 percent transient general aviation, 36 percent local general aviation, and small proportions of military and air taxi traffic. The airport hosts an annual air show in late November featuring both full-scale and radio-controlled aircraft flown by the Coachella Valley Radio Control Club, and in mid-January the club and airport coordinate no-fly zones, with a temporary model operating ceiling of 2,000 feet, for the club's national jet rally.