Albany Municipal Airport: Albany, Oregon

Airport Location: Albany Municipal Airport (FAA LID: S12) is a general aviation airport located three miles (5 km) east of the city of Albany in Linn County, Oregon, United States. It is operated by the City of Albany. It is believed to be the oldest operating airfield in Oregon, opening in 1920.

Airport History: 
First opened to the public in 1920 by private owners
In 1929 the City of Albany buys the property and names it the Albany Municipal Airport. A 1931 airshow inspired the Northwest Art and Air Festival and a jet first landed in Albany in 1964.

In 1998, the airport became the first airport in Oregon to be named to the National Register of Historic Places, and was the City of Albany's fourth National Historic District.
 
Ongoing projects by the City are seeking to preserve and extend the use of the historic hangars on the property

Albany Airport Today: Intensive flight training; Agricultural and helicopter operations;

Find Albany Airport Services and Amenities:

Restaurant: Lum Yuen Chinese & American, Flight training, agricultural and helicopter operations, Air BP 100LL and self-serve 100LL 24 hrs.

Albany Airport Special Events & Attractions:

More than 40,000 people enjoyed the sights and sounds of the Northwest Art & Air Festival in Albany, Oregon last year. Join us again, August 27-29, 2010!

Covered bridges; Fair grounds and expo center; Historic buildings and victorian homes; antiques and wineries.

The non-instrument rated, private pilot filed an instrument flight plan for a cross-country flight, in an airplane not equipped for in-flight icing encounters. The pilot was seated in the right seat, and the airplane's owner, also a non-instrument rated private pilot, was seated in the left seat. Family members indicated that the pilot and the owner/pilot flew together often, and the right seat pilot would provide radio and navigation assistance to the owner/pilot. Based on the available evidence, investigators were unable to determine who was flying the airplane at the time of the accident. The airplane was cleared to climb to 13,000 feet, and approximately 8 minutes after departure, declared an emergency and was lost from radar. Data obtained from instrumentation on board the airplane indicated that after attaining approximately 10,400 feet, the airplane entered a rapid descent. Weather information at the time of the accident showed that icing
conditions were forecast along the route of flight. Records show multiple weather information requests from the right seat pilot's computer log-on information to a digital weather service provider the night prior to the accident, and the left seat owner/pilot received a weather briefing via telephone the night prior to the accident. All briefings indicated that visual flight rules to marginal visual flight rules conditions were forecast, and there were airman's meteorological information (AIRMETs) advisories for mountain obscuration, icing, and turbulence.

After an uneventful touchdown for a full-stop landing, the pilot initially raised the nose of the airplane for the purpose of aerodynamic braking. She then lowered the nose wheel to the runway, and began to apply the wheel brakes. At that time she discovered that there was no resistance from the left brake pedal, and that the left brake was not working. Although she applied the right brake hard, that wheel began to skid, and the airplane departed the right side of the end of the runway. After departing the runway, the airplane's horizontal stabilizer impacted a runway sign support box. An inspection of the left brake master cylinder by a Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Inspector determined that it contained only residual hydraulic fluid near its bottom, and that fluid had been leaking past the shaft that protrudes from the master cylinder and connects to the brake pedal. Updated at Dec 29 2009 12:44PM