Gimli Industrial Park Airport

Gimli Industrial Park Airport, (IATA: YGM, ICAO: CYGM), is a former military field located 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) west of Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. The field is now operated as a civilian airport, with one of the original parallel runways decommissioned and now a significant portion of Gimli Motorsports Park. Flying-related activities here include use by Manitoba Provincial Government's water bomber squadron, the Gimli Cadet Flying Site, Interlake Aviation flight school and charter service, and a helicopter charter and training company. Gimli is also used by No. 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron based out of No. 17 Wing Winnipeg, for training purposes, and as a skydive drop zone by Skydive Manitoba. In the summertime the airport hosts glider pilot training for air cadets as Regional Gliding School (Northwest).[2]

Gimli Industrial Park Airport
Gimli Industrial Park Airport in 2012
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorRural Municipality of Gimli
LocationGimli RM, near Gimli, Manitoba
Time zoneCST (UTC−06:00)
 • Summer (DST)CDT (UTC−05:00)
Elevation AMSL753 ft / 230 m
Coordinates50°37′41″N 097°02′36″W
Map
CYGM
Location in Manitoba
CYGM
CYGM (Canada)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
15/33 6,800 2,073 Asphalt

History
Betel Waterfront, T-33 Training Plane

Opened as RCAF Station Gimli, the airfield served during World War II as the home of Service Flying Training School #18 under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The station closed in September 1971 and the airport was used for civilian activities.

Tenants
  • Gimli Motorsports Park
  • Gimli Cadet Flying Training Centre
  • Skydive Manitoba
  • Prairie Helicopters Incorporated
  • Interlake Aviation Flight School & Charter Service

Incidents and accidents

In 1983, the airport became famous when a Boeing 767 (C-GAUN) of Air Canada ran out of fuel over southern Manitoba and successfully glided to a landing at Gimli Motorsports Park. There were no serious injuries. The aircraft in the incident became popularly referred to as the Gimli Glider.[3]

Three people were killed on August 27, 1992 when a NewCal Aviation turbine-modified de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou they were aboard crashed on the airfield during climb-out after a short take-off from the airport. The aircraft nosed sharply up, arced right and nosed into the ground. Although there was no explosion, a fire started and consumed the aircraft's remains. The cause was listed as failure to deactivate the plane's gust-lock control in the cockpit, which was interlocked into the throttles when the plane was powered by radial piston engines. This feature was defeated in the plane's conversion to turboprop.[4] Despite having a statutory duty to "investigate civil aviation occurrences that take place in or over Canada and any place under Canadian air traffic control" the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has no record of this incident.

References
  1. Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 16 July 2020 to 0901Z 10 September 2020.
  2. About the Cadet Summer Training Centre
  3. Witkin, Richard (July 30, 1983). "Jet's Fuel Ran Out After Metric Conversion Errors". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Air Canada said yesterday that its Boeing 767 jet ran out of fuel in mid-flight last week because of two mistakes in calculating the amount of fuel that would be required for the trip because the 767 was the airline's first aircraft to use metric measurements. After both engines lost power, the pilots made what is now thought to be the first successful emergency "dead stick" landing of a commercial jetliner.
  4. Four Unrelated Accidents page 6.


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