Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Port Heiden Airport is a remote, state-owned gravel airfield on the Alaska Peninsula, serving the small community of Port Heiden and providing a vital link for air taxi services along this stretch of coastline. Its history stretches back to a World War II Army airfield and a Cold War radar station, and today it remains a quiet but functional facility for general aviation and scheduled bush operators.
Port Heiden Airport lies on the Alaska Peninsula in the Lake and Peninsula Borough, serving the village of Port Heiden. It is a state-owned public airfield handling a mix of air taxi and general aviation traffic, with no scheduled jet service and no control tower, making it a straightforward but remote destination for a VFR sim pilot exploring the Alaskan bush environment.
The airfield sits within uncontrolled airspace typical of rural Alaska, roughly six nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Port Heiden village, within the Lake and Peninsula Borough. It falls under the Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center for any en-route services, with Kenai Flight Service Station providing advisory support in the area.
Port Heiden has two physical runways. Runway 06/24 is 7,470 feet long, with a hard surface and lighting on both ends. Runway 14/32 is 5,259 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. Both runways offer generous length for the light and medium general aviation and air taxi traffic typical of the airfield.
Pilots should use the common traffic advisory frequency of 122.8 MHz for airfield operations, as there is no control tower. An automated weather observing system (AWOS-3) broadcasts on 135.4 MHz. Anchorage Center can be reached on 132.9 MHz, and Kenai Radio (Flight Service) operates on 122.0 MHz. There is no instrument landing system at the field.
With no tower or published local circuit procedure available, pilots should make blind calls on the CTAF (122.8 MHz) to announce intentions and monitor for other traffic, standard practice for uncontrolled Alaskan gravel strips. Left-hand traffic patterns have historically been used at the field for both runway directions.
The airfield is located to the northeast of Port Heiden village, on the Alaska Peninsula coastline, with the surrounding tundra and coastal terrain serving as the primary visual references for pilots inbound to the strip. No formal published visual reporting points are noted for the field.
The airfield began life as Fort Morrow Army Airfield, opened during the Second World War, before being closed and returned to civilian status after the war ended. From 1958 it took on a new military role supporting Port Heiden Air Force Station, a Cold War Distant Early Warning Line radar site operated by Detachment 5 of the 714th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, based out of Cold Bay Air Force Station. The radar station was inactivated in September 1969, ending military use of the airfield, and around the year 2000 the Air Force remediated the site, removing abandoned structures and restoring the area to its natural condition.
Today Port Heiden Airport functions as a general aviation and air taxi facility, historically served by carriers flying to nearby communities such as Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake, King Salmon, Manokotak and Perryville. There is no control tower and no landing fee is charged. The field has previously seen an incident in April 2008 when a business jet departed the gravel surface of runway 23 while landing in a crosswind, sustaining substantial damage without injury to those aboard; this occurred prior to the runways being noted as hard-surfaced in current data. Pilots planning a visit should be aware this is a remote Alaskan bush airfield with limited services on site.