Departure
95%
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Stellar Airpark is a small, privately owned residential airpark on the western edge of Chandler, Arizona, built around a single paved runway that runs through the heart of a fly-in community. It is best known among sim pilots as a classic American airpark experience, with homes and hangars lining the runway and taxiways leading directly to private driveways.
Stellar Airpark (ICAO: P19) is a privately owned, public-use residential airpark in Chandler, Maricopa County, Arizona. It is operated by the Stellar Runway Utilizers Association (SRUA), a non-profit formed by resident homeowners, and the field sits at the centre of a fly-in community where many properties have direct taxiway access to the runway. For a simulator pilot, Stellar offers a genuine slice of American airpark culture: a single-runway field surrounded by houses and hangars rather than commercial infrastructure, with light general-aviation traffic typical of a busy Sun Belt training and touring area.
Stellar Airpark lies about 3 miles (2.6 nautical miles) west of downtown Chandler, Arizona, in the Phoenix metropolitan area, an area with considerable general-aviation and airline traffic. The field is a privately owned, public-use aerodrome, and pilots should expect it to sit within the wider Phoenix-area airspace structure, in proximity to other Valley airports.
The airpark has one physical runway, 17/35, of asphalt construction. Runway 17 is 4,053 feet long and runway 35 is 4,065 feet long; both directions are lit.
The airpark is located west of central Chandler, with the residential and industrial development that grew up around the field, including Stellar Airpark Estates, forming a distinctive built-up area along the runway that can help with visual identification when inbound.
The airpark's origins trace to 1969, when Harold (Tom) L. Earley Jr., a local cotton farmer, envisioned an airpark where residents could taxi their aircraft directly to their homes. He formed the Stellar Development Corp. and marketed the project as "Stellar City Air Park" on agricultural land south of what is now Chandler Boulevard, with an original plan for eighty homes split between direct runway access and a tie-down area, plus a wash rack, maintenance hangar and fuelling service. Earley died in a plane crash on 11 September 1975 before his vision was fully realised. In 1976 developer Tom Van Sickle bought the property from Earley's estate and built out the adjoining industrial land, financing the work against the airport property; when his lender, Southwest Savings and Loan, became insolvent in the late 1980s, the south half of the runway property passed to the Resolution Trust Corporation. In 1990 residents discovered the airport's land taxes were delinquent and at risk of a tax lien sale; homeowners Mike Kramer and Dan Perry, with a loan from resident Merrill Matney, funded a legal fight against Maricopa County and formed the Stellar Runway Utilizers Association (SRUA), which purchased the land from the Resolution Trust Corporation for a nominal sum. The county's assessment was subsequently reduced, Van Sickle quit-claimed the remaining airport land to the SRUA, and the property was consolidated as common area. The City of Chandler had annexed the development in 1979. In 1991 residents celebrated the successful campaign with the first "Stellar Day", an annual event that has continued since, featuring pot-luck gatherings, spot-landing and bomb-drop contests. In 1999 the developer Mark-Taylor purchased land to the south and, working with the SRUA, renovated the runway, taxiways and lighting while adding new lots as the gated Stellar Airpark Estates, which opened in 2000.
Stellar Airpark remains a privately owned, public-use general-aviation airfield managed by the Stellar Runway Utilizers Association, which collects dues from resident homeowners and aircraft owners based at the field's FBO tie-downs and hangars to maintain the runway. It continues to function as an active fly-in residential community, with based aircraft including single-engine types, jets, multi-engine aircraft, helicopters, ultralights and at least one glider, and it sees a steady flow of daily general-aviation operations.