[JYO] Leesburg Executive Airport Open House Press Release

 
Leesburg  Executive Airport Hosts Community Open House: Celebrating   
40 Years of  Landing Business in Leesburg and Loudoun County 
Leesburg, VA  --  Leesburg Executive Airport Commission will host an Open 
House Saturday, October 23 from 10 a.m.  to 4:00 p.m. at the town-owned 
facility 
on Sycolin Road in Leesburg.  Rain date is Sunday, October 24. 
The family-oriented event is in  celebration of the airport’s 40 years of 
landing business and supporting  aviation in Leesburg and Loudoun County. 
Admission is free. Food and beverage  concessions will be available.  
“Our objective is to dramatize  the airport’s role and its’ value to the 
community, and to help the public  understand General Aviation (non-airline) 
operations conducted there,” said  Dennis B. Boykin, vice-chairman of the 
Leesburg 
Airport Commission. 
Approximately 20 aircraft will be  on display, ranging from modern General 
Aviation planes to vintage models and  historic WWII aircraft. The Leesburg 
Squadron of the U.S. Air Force auxiliary  Civil Air Patrol search-and-rescue 
organization, and its cadet program for  youth, will display “JYO”-based 
search 
aircraft. 
First Flight rides will be  available at moderate cost, flown by 
Leesburg-based flight schools. 
All airport businesses will be  open for visitors. There are seven commercial 
tenants at Leesburg Executive: two  emergency medical helicopter operations 
(Air Care Medevac and MedStar); three  flight schools (American Helicopters, 
Inc.; Av-Ed and Aviation Adventures), a  major East Coast aircraft sales 
business (Blue Sky Aviation) and a major  national aircraft servicing 
organization 
(Piedmont Hawthorne.) Tours of the FAA  Flight Service Station are also 
planned. 

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LEESBURG AIRPORT FAST FACTS 


Leesburg’s  Runway 17-35 is a generous 5,500 feet  long and 100 feet wide but 
with 
Dulles International nearby, Leesburg serves  only General Aviation. It is 
not a candidate for scheduled airline service or  airline diversions from 
Dulles.  Aircraft operations totaled 107,000 in 2003. 
Three  non-precision instrument approaches are  available for bad-weather 
operations, including a Runway 17 localizer  approach.  A glideslope (for  
vertical guidance to Runway 17) is planned within three years, resulting in a  
full 
Instrument Landing System (ILS) -- the most precise guidance system for  
bad-weather approaches.  
Leesburg  currently has one of only five WAAS-enabled Global Positioning 
System  (GPS) approaches in the nation, the most precise satellite navigation 
approach  currently available. 
Surface  parking areas total 58,300 square feet  for outside tie-down of 119 
General Aviation aircraft. Additional aircraft are  accommodated in 235,000 
square feet of hangar space. 
Over 230 aircraft are based at Leesburg (November 2003),  up from 139 in 
1985. 
Leesburg  Executive Airport hosts one of 61 FAA  Automated Flight Service 
Stations, a modern and recently upgraded facility that  consolidated many 
smaller 
facilities (and their FAA staffs) around the region.  The AFSS handles radio 
communications, flight plans, weather briefing and  administrative matters for 
airborne aircraft and pilots on the ground in  mid-Atlantic states. It also 
coordinates FAA functions in search and rescue and  other emergencies. 
The nearby  FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center  (Washington Center) is one 
of only 20 in the U.S.  It handles high-altitude air traffic  control for the 
entire mid-Atlantic region. Employing hundreds, its location  here was 
facilitated by the presence of Leesburg Executive  Airport. 
On-airport  businesses alone employ some 125  full-time and 45 part-time 
workers, jobs paying some $10,000,000 in salaries and  benefits. Economic 
analyses 
calculate that Leesburg Executive Airport  contributes $28 million to as much 
as $42 million to the Leesburg and Loudoun  economies. 
The 207-acre  facility is already 88% developed. A  publicly owned 
FAA-designated reliever* airport, Leesburg is eligible for 95%  federal funding 
of 
airport improvement projects. (*Because Leesburg is available  for smaller, 
slower 
aircraft, airline traffic at Dulles operates more  efficiently with fewer 
delays.)  
Leesburg  Executive is now one of the most convenient General Aviation 
airports in the region, thanks to the  Dulles Greenway. The airport draws 
business 
from a wide area of Northern  Virginia; 85% of based aircraft are owned by 
companies and individuals in  Loudoun, Clark, Fairfax and Arlington counties 
plus 
northern Prince William  County. 
The airport  is in the new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around 
Washington, requiring extra security  procedures for every flight to and from 
the 
field. Every flight flies on a  flight plan filed in advance and is radar 
identified and radar monitored by FAA  and security officials. 

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