Traverse City’s Airport – KTVC

In this episode of "Mike Dell's World," hosted by Mike Dell, the discussion centers on Traverse City Airport (KTVC) and its history. Mike begins by introducing the episode as number 413, aired on November 7, 2025. He mentions his connection to the airport as a pilot and provides insights into its geographical location in relation to his house. Mike recalls that Traverse City Airport wasn't always in its current location and describes the original Ransom Field airport, which opened in 1929. He discusses the move to the current airport site, previously a Naval Air Station, in 1946, and highlights the joint ownership by Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, now overseen by the Northwest Regional Airport Commission. The narrative covers various details about the airport's operations, including its initial configuration with multiple runways and the types of aircraft historically present. Mike notes that Traverse City Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Michigan, identifying its airspace classification as Delta, which requires communication with the control tower while allowing casual traffic. He elaborates on the airport's recent developments, including a new terminal built in the early 2000s, and how the airport has expanded its flight options over the years. In the past, flights were limited to connections to Detroit and Minneapolis, but Mike explains that several airlines now offer year-round and seasonal non-stop flights to various destinations. Throughout the episode, Mike shares anecdotes about his experiences at the airport, including interactions with military aircraft and notable historical events, such as presidential visits. He mentions some minor incidents that have occurred at the airport but clarifies that there have been no major accidents in recent memory. Concluding, Mike emphasizes the importance of Traverse City Airport for Northern Michigan's connectivity and expresses excitement about future episodes, hinting at a rant planned for the next day.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Mike Dole's World number four thirteen
for
the
11/07/2025.
I think it's time for Mike Dole's World.

(00:36):
There it is.
And there it is indeed. Hey. Today, we're
gonna talk about
the local airport,
Traverse City Airport, KTVC.
For those of you that
follow such things, as you know, I'm a
pilot,
and I fly out of Traverse City, you

(00:57):
know, when I go flying. I'm a, you
know, I'm a completely,
fair weather pilot and fly once in a
while and all that good stuff. So but,
yeah, fly out of there.
But I thought it might be interesting to
go into the history of Traverse City Airport.
It wasn't always where it is now.
Right now, it's

(01:19):
literally
a mile from me.
No. It's actually less than that. If I
go to the end of my driveway, I
can kinda see the end of Runway 28,
which is the long runway,
coming from the, you know, planes land flying
towards the west.
And they fly right over three mile road.

(01:41):
I think in my road trip episode a
few days ago, I
I actually,
you know, drove past it and mentioned I
just crossed the center line on 28.
Anyway,
but it's right
in kind of on the East Side of
Traverse City.
Technically, the Traverse Heights,

(02:04):
section of Traverse City,
is on the West Side of it.
And on the east side, of course, is
three mile road in the north side, South
Airport Road,
appropriately named, I guess. And, on the
north side of it is Parsons Road,
which is, you know, kind of a,

(02:25):
yeah, a semi main road that runs
along well, basically,
runs along the airport on the on the
East side or on the
North side. Jeez. I got my my directions
all screwed up.
Well, mainly because where I'm sitting in my
studio, I'm facing south,
so I always kinda turn everything,

(02:46):
around
unless I think about it.
But, Traverse City Airport wasn't always where it
is now, as I said.
I
guess the old airport was called Ransom Field,
and it was located
on what's now called Veterans Drive. And it's
kind of a a bit of a shelf,

(03:09):
on the West Side Of Traverse City, South
And West Side
of Traverse City.
I guess if you're a local,
kind of where Memorial Gardens,
Cemetery is
is, kind of where the old airport was,
and that was opened in 1929.
And then in 1936,

(03:31):
they moved to what was then known as,
Traverse City Naval Air Station or Naval Air
Station Traverse City. I guess it's probably the
nomenclature,
but, they took over that. It was owned
by
Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties, a joint ownership
in it.

(03:52):
And now it's owned by the Northwest Michigan.
Here, I'll I'll read it,
just so I remember,
what it's called.
Where is it? Where is it? Where is
it? I think it's the Northwest
Regional Airport
Commission or
airport authority. There we go.

(04:14):
And,
so that that was just that's just, you
know, an
entity that was
created by the two counties,
to oversee the airport. But, it's a it's
a pretty big
chunk of land, especially where it is.
They've talked about moving it again. But, anyway,

(04:34):
1946,
they moved to the the Naval Air Station
grounds, which was kind of inactive after World
War two.
The naval air station
pioneered a lot of,
believe it or not, drones or,
you
know, non piloted vehicles,
aerial vehicles. Now not

(04:56):
to the extent that we're using them now,
but
that was kinda what they did back in
the day.
And originally, it had four runways, and I
cannot find an old chart to
figure out where those runways were.
Currently, it has two pieces of pavement, which
is technically four runways, but,
for the sake of of what this says,

(05:18):
there would have been eight possible runways with
four pieces of pavement, or maybe it was
some of them were grass. I don't know.
But currently, it's Runway 28 And 10,
you know, depending on which way you're coming
in. And then there's another runway North South,
it's 36 And 18.

(05:39):
And
I sort of remember 23,
which kind of crisscross those two.
That wasn't that long ago,
that they got rid of that runway.
Oh, I don't know. Probably in the seventies
or early eighties.
I do remember a story from my Saturday

(06:00):
morning coffee klatch where
the North Central Airlines, I believe it was,
or Republic Airlines, one of those, airlines back
in the day.
We're bringing the first d c nine into
Traverse City, and
the pilots, they were all expecting them to
land on 28, which is the longest runway,

(06:21):
and they came in on 23
or whatever that crisscrossy runway that doesn't exist
anymore
was, which was the shortest runway. So it's
sort of sort of surprised everybody.
But,
anyway,
it
and now, you know, it it changed to

(06:41):
a Coast Guard air station in 1946.
Coast Guard air station Traverse City is still
there, the Guardians of the Great Lakes,
but they kinda compose about an eighth of
the property
there now.
They're over on this side of the in
fact, they're
right close to where I live

(07:02):
here on 3 Mile,
and,
they've got some helicopters. And, you know, over
the years, they've had other things. I remember,
you know, living
10 miles west of town,
I could hear the Coast Guard,
or the albatrosses.
Albatross is an amphibious
plane with big radio engines on it, and

(07:25):
those things were loud. And we could hear
them take off and or land,
mostly take off because they're, you know, full
power, but we could hear them 10 miles
away. Yeah. I can't imagine what it would
have been like living, you know, where I
live now.
It's, you know, not bad, but, you know,
I hear airliners
and helicopters
and

(07:45):
all the stuff.
Traverse City, believe it or not, is the
fourth busiest airport in the state of Michigan.
Only two that are busier are
Wayne County
or whatever it's called now.
Detroit Metro Airport. That used to be called
Wayne County. But Detroit Metro Airport,

(08:06):
in Detroit
and Grand Rapids,
are the two other busiest airports, and Traverse
City's third.
And if you know anything about airspace, Traverse
City is a class delta
airspace, which is
the least
restrictive
airspace compared to,

(08:27):
you know,
that has a control tower.
Deltas are the ones that have control towers.
Then Charlie's are usually bigger. That's what Grand
Rapids is.
And then,
there's Bravos, and the Bravos are like, you
know, Detroit, Chicago,
you know, all the really big ones, Atlanta.

(08:47):
But, Traverse City is a Delta, so that
means they own the airspace from the ground
to 3,600
feet. Oh, jeez. I should know that. I'm
that doesn't really matter because I don't fly
over the airport, and I fly to it
and and from it and around it, but
not
over it. But, some 3,000

(09:09):
something feet, to the ground and four miles
approximately,
and it looks like just a cylinder of
airspace. And and to fly into that, you
have to have two way communications with the
tower,
and
that's really about the only restriction.
You know, you gotta kinda do what they
tell you when you're in their airspace, of

(09:30):
course. But
again,
it's not a super restrictive airspace
compared to, say, Grand Rapids and Detroit,
and
and we're we're almost as busy. Well, we're
not as busy as Detroit, not even close,
but, I'd say we're
on par at least in the summer with

(09:50):
Grand Rapids,
although they might, ramp up too in the
summer. But,
compare winter in Grand Rapids versus,
summer up here, it's probably about the same
amount of traffic. There's two big flight schools.
Well, a big flight school and another flight
school on the field here in Traverse City.
The Northwest Michigan College

(10:12):
has a flight program, and they have quite
a bit of airplanes and and,
quite a few students.
So at any one time during nice weather,
there'll
be
several students in the air around the airport.
And then, Giving Wings Aviation, that's where I
fly out of.

(10:34):
They, you know, usually have three or four
airplanes flying,
during nice weather
and a lot of training going on and
lots of comings and goings.
But,
yeah, it can get busy. I remember that
was probably a month ago. I was in
the pattern,
and,
let's see. There was two or three airline

(10:55):
flights,
a bunch of business jets, and there was
at least three or four of us in
the pattern.
I still ended up getting 11 takeoffs and
landings. So
the the controllers here are pretty darn good.
I don't know if they really like the
fact that a bunch of little airplanes are
circling them all the time, but, they they
deal with it. And then they get the

(11:16):
big airplanes in as well.
But, yeah, it's it's a it's a nice
nice airport.
I wouldn't call it little.
Again, you know, Runway 2810
is
7,000
plus feet long,
and the crossing runway is 5,000 feet, which

(11:38):
is plenty for most aircraft. We've had
everything
in here. You know, the Air Force One's
been in here a few times.
We we get routinely, you know, airbuses and
seven twenty seven or seven thirty sevens, not
so much seven twenty sevens anymore.
DC nine variants like the seven one seven.

(12:01):
Lots of regional jets, a lot of,
fighter jets come in here. You know, we
always have an air show every year. Usually,
the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds
are here for Cherry Festival,
for the air show, and they fly in
and out of here just just fine.
He said not a not a problem. You
know, one time I was in the pattern

(12:22):
and got told by the controller, extend your
downwind. I'll call your base.
Okay. And I said your your traffic is
a flight of four f eighteens,
on final,
four two eight. And then, ended up,
they passed me, same altitude,
about a half mile apart

(12:43):
and go in the opposite direction, and then
right after that controller said, okay, you can
follow those f 18. So caution weight turbulence.
I said, yeah, no duh.
My airplane weighs
1,300
pounds or so, and,
yeah. It's,
that can be dangerous. So I extended out
a little bit longer and, made sure I

(13:05):
landed beyond where they touched down.
Yeah. No no problem with wake turbulence, but
that was kinda cool.
One other time
during the 2024
campaign,
I was taxiing out
and had to taxi to 36, so I
had to cross 28.
And

(13:25):
he said, you know, hold short of 28,
incoming 737.
Oh, okay. Cool.
737
and it was,
JD Vance,
campaign plane. And as we were taxing out,
I looked over and
I saw a whole bunch of, state police
cars over by one of the hangars.

(13:46):
Wondered what was going on and then, okay,
I figured it out. JD was coming in
for a campaign
appearance. So, anyway, then as soon as he
landed and got down the runway a bit,
I crossed the runway, went over to 36,
took off, got out of here.
But, that was kinda cool.
Of course, when the president's here, and he's

(14:06):
he's come in here a couple times as
well, there's a a TFR,
temporary flight restriction, so they don't allow you
to fly when he's on the ground here
at the airport.
But, anyway but back to the airport, you
know, Cherry Capital's turning and that's the the
official name of it, Cherry Capital Airport.

(14:27):
And it,
it's getting kinda large.
You know, back in the day, they had
a terminal building on the
south side
of of the main runway, south side of
the airport. And, you know, it had a
couple of gates, and that was really about

(14:47):
it.
There really wasn't a lot there.
And they built a new terminal across the
field. And this, I believe, was somewhere
in February,
early two thousands. What had to be because
during the,
what was it, February,

(15:09):
president Bush came in here,
and he was the first user of the
new terminal. They parked Air Force One out
on the, airline ramp at the new terminal,
and
he, walked through the new terminal building to
get to his motorcade and to go to
whatever event he was going to.
So they got pictures of him in that
new,

(15:30):
airport terminal. And I say new because it
was from 2004. It's almost twenty years ago
or over twenty years ago.
But now they're they're expanding it again.
We have quite a few flights.
You know, it used to be that the
only place you could go out of Traverse
City was on,

(15:50):
I believe it was Republic Airlines
and then,
North Central Airlines, and then it switched to
Northwest Airlines and then Delta,
as all these have
merged together. And then a little while later,
American came in, but they're really the only
flights we had were between here and Detroit
and here in

(16:11):
Minneapolis.
So now year around,
they have,
Allegiant Airlines,
and they fly to Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix,
Saint Petersburg, Florida.
And then seasonal, they do Orlando,
Sanford, and Punta Gorda, Florida. Those are all
nonstops.

(16:31):
Allegiant, you know, they're an up and comer
discount airlines. My my wife flies them quite
a bit when she goes to Florida. It's
kinda cool
and I believe they're seasonal for the two
other Florida flights in the winter, where most
of the rest of these that have seasonal
flights
are,
are summer only
seasonal flights. Like, American,

(16:54):
they most of the time, they fly back
and forth to Chicago. That's kind of their
their gig.
But,
in the
in the summer months, they have a
a direct flight to Charlotte, Dallas,
and Washington National.
And what was cool about that is I
was able to use those

(17:14):
flights,
or at least the Dallas one and the
Washington
one.
And, also,
on another airline, I was able to
use one to Denver, a non stop flight.
We don't get a lot of non stop
flights here, you know, like when I fly
out I'm usually going to Detroit or Chicago
to switch airplanes,

(17:36):
but anyway, American, the mainline American has Charlotte,
Dallas,
Washington, and then American Eagle, the
the,
you know, affiliate, obviously.
They do Chicago, O'Hare, Boston,
Charlotte,
Dallas,
LaGuardia,

(17:56):
New York, and Philadelphia.
All but the Chicago one is seasonal in
the summer.
AVEO Airlines
or Avelo or I don't know how to
pronounce that, but they only have one flight
and they go to New Haven,
Connecticut
of all places and that's just seasonal.
Delta, that's kind of the main airline

(18:19):
here, but not necessarily
anymore because,
United is here as well. But,
they mainly go to Detroit and seasonally
to Minneapolis
and New York.
And, they just added a
year round flight to Atlanta. I just saw
that in the news. And then Delta Connection,

(18:42):
which is Delta's affiliate airline there. They also
do seasonal to Boston,
which, and then Minneapolis.
But, Anyway, kind of cool. JetBlue just got
here, and they're doing
seasonal routes to Boston. So
they're probably not here in the wintertime, but
they're here in the summer.
And, Sun Country

(19:03):
flies to Minneapolis
only, and it's seasonal.
United, that's another big one. They do Chicago
year round,
and United Express does Chicago year round. And
then, seasonally, they do Denver and Washington, Dulles,
and,
and then in Houston, I guess, and New

(19:24):
York. Newark. Newark.
Anyway, so that's quite a bit for a
little airport like this.
Definitely
not what it used to be like.
You know, I'd go to Kofi Klatch with
a lot of, ex airline pilots that were
around here,
you know, back when Republic and
and,
North Central

(19:45):
were the things. And, one of the guys
was saying, he says, yeah. They'd leave
Detroit.
They would fly to
Grand Rapids and then Muskegon and then Traverse
City and then Pellston, which is kind of
an interesting little airport. I'm gonna do another
episode about aviation up north here
and I'll be talking about Pellston

(20:06):
Airport, but,
anyway, you know, they would do, you know,
eight, ten stops and end up in Minneapolis.
They don't do that kind of thing anymore.
Now it's all hub and spoke with
the little commuters with the exception of some
of these newer airlines that are now doing
some non stops, but
for the most part it's hub and spoke.

(20:27):
So
you know, they don't have these routes that,
the airliners used to fly.
You know, they save the bigger airplanes for
the longer flights and the smaller airplanes getting
people to the bigger airports.
Nothing wrong with that and, you know, Traverse
City is not a hub to anywhere.
I don't believe it's it's

(20:48):
normal for somebody to fly through Traverse City
to get somewhere else. They usually originate here
or end up here,
not,
not flying through. So there's not a lot
of switching airplanes in Traverse City. It's,
at least that's not normal. Now once in
a while, if the weather in Pellston's bad
and the Delta flight that's going up there,

(21:09):
has to land in Traverse City instead.
Some sometimes they'll hang out and then fly
up to Pellston, and other times they'll bring
a bus and, just haul them up there
on the bus. Yeah. You know, I paid
for an airline ticket. I don't wanna go
on a bus.
Anyway,
haven't had any,
any major
wrecks here at Traverse City as long as

(21:31):
I can remember. We've had some interesting,
you know, small plane,
you know, quote unquote crashes, but,
nothing
too crazy, you know. Usually, it's gear up
landings or collapsed gear
or something on the runway totally expected
or unexpected.
But they did have

(21:52):
a CRJ run off the runway
landing in Traverse City back in 2007.
And, he just
overran the runway
and ended up in the in the snowbank
at the end of the runway. And
they did a little damage to the airplane,
but, there were 52 people on board, and
nobody was injured.

(22:14):
And, it was a really snowy
night, and,
I don't think,
the pilots realized that when they got on
the ground, the brakes aren't gonna work that
good and,
apparently didn't get the thrust reversers in enough
to, get it stopped. But,
like I said, no harm, no foul. That
airplane
sat on the ramp probably a couple of

(22:35):
weeks before they, got it fixed and flew
it out of here, so it was no
big deal. Had one of the college airplanes
land in the graveyard
off the end of one eight
or not the graveyard.
That's right.
That would be a good place to land
if you had to, but,
no. They, they landed at the Traverse City

(22:55):
Civic Center. That's right. And so they landed
on a ball diamond
there and,
and it ran up against a fence. They
had an engine failure on, on final and
couldn't make the runway
from wherever they were.
And, that airplane's still flying. In fact, I
know they're not flying today. It's kinda crappy
out, but, I see it all the time

(23:16):
on flight radar
on, you know, the ADSB
thing that you can watch airplanes on.
And,
so that one's five November whiskey. It's the
last part of his call sign.
But,
yeah, they they got it hauled back to
the airport, fixed the engine, and a couple
little dents from hitting the fence.

(23:38):
And it was back flying no no time
in no time.
So, anyway, that's kind of the rundown Traverse
City Airport.
Pretty important to Northern Michigan,
as far as, you know, getting in and
out of here.
I mentioned Paulson Airport. They actually have a
Delta flight that flies out of there. That's,

(23:58):
pretty close to the Mackinac Bridge, so it's
it's a bit north of us and a
lot of the Yoopers, you know, fly in
and out of there. Although there's another airport
on the other side,
used to be the old Kinslow Air Force
Base.
And, they have a couple of Delta flights
in and out of there every day.

(24:19):
That's part of that essential air service thing.
There's a airport about an hour away by
driving
called Manistee Airport, and, they have an airliner
there that just goes back and forth to
Chicago. I've actually taken that a couple times,
in my travels just because

(24:39):
sometimes it's easier just to go over there.
Although, I'm a mile from the terminal building
at Traverse City, so it's really not a
big deal. But,
anyhoo, that's it for today.
And, let's see. Tomorrow,
I got a rant for you,
so stay tuned for that.