DeLand Municipal Airport

Military use

The city first began developing the airport in the 1920s with the first asphalt runway laid around 1936. In 1942, the City of DeLand donated the facility to the U.S. Navy and it was renamed Naval Air Station DeLand on November 17, 1942.

Following extensive military construction, NAS DeLand's primary focus was advanced training for Navy flight crews in land-based PBO Ventura and PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bombers, and carrier-based SBD Dauntless dive bombers. Several of the U.S. Navy's former and present day maritime patrol and reconnaissance (VP) squadrons operating the P-3 Orion trace their squadron lineage to being initially established at NAS DeLand during World War II.

In 1944, training in the carrier-based F6F Hellcat fighter was also added to NAS DeLand's mission.

As many as 331 officers and 1,140 enlisted men were stationed at NAS DeLand by early 1944. NAS DeLand also maintained an outlying field at Spruce Creek (OLF Spruce Creek) for use in carrier landing training, and boat facilities were maintained on Crescent Lake and at DeLeon Springs for use in rescuing downed pilots. Generally, pilots in trouble would rather crash land on water than land. Nine Mile Point on Lake George was also under NAS DeLand's control and was used as a practice bombing site with a Navy PBY Catalina seaplane stationed nearby in the event of an aircraft mishap on the lake. This Lake George site is still used today as part of the Navy's Pinecastle Electronic Warfare and Bombing Range managed by NAS Jacksonville.

NAS DeLand was decommissioned following the end of World War II, its control tower closed, and control of the airfield returned to the City of DeLand. Numerous former military buildings remain standing as part of the airport's industrial park and the Naval Air Station DeLand Museum.

Current use

Today, the airport serves as an uncontrolled general aviation reliever airport to commercial operations at Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) and Orlando International Airport (MCO). In 2007, an analysis was completed for the possible establishment of an FAA Level 1 air traffic control tower at DED under the FAA's Contract Tower Program.

Facilities and aircraft

DeLand Municipal Airport covers an area of 1,289 acres (522 ha) which contains two asphalt paved runways: 12/30 measuring 6,000 x 100 ft (1,829 x 30 m) and 5/23: 4,300 x 75 ft (1,311 x 23 m).

For the 12-month period ending May 7, 2002, the airport had 77,710 aircraft operations, an average of 212 per day: 99% general aviation, 1% air taxi and <1% military. There are 162 aircraft based at this airport: 70% single-engine, 23% multi-engine, 2% jet, 4% helicopter and 1% ultralight.

Incidents

On Monday, April 2, 2012, in the evening, an amphibious Sea Wind 3000 plane encountered problems (one individual who made a 911 call said that the engine began sputtering and then the plane made a nose dive) shortly after taking off from DeLand Municipal Airport (roughly 40 miles north of Orlando, Florida)- less than two miles later, it crashed into a shopping center, a Publix supermarket. According to Luke Schiada, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), three customers were hurt, and two people aboard the plane were hospitalized in Orlando; all of the injuries resulted from burns. He said the plane is made of composite material and was amateur built in 2002; the plane seats four people, but only two people from Illinois were aboard. DeLand Police spokesman Lt. Jack Waples identified the men as Kim Presbrey and Thomas Rhoades. Fire consumed most of the plane, which plunged through the roof and landed between two aisles in the middle of the store. The plane didn't have a black box but investigators may be able to use the plane's GPS system to learn more about what happened, Schiada said.