Ankara Güvercinlik Army Air Base

Ankara Güvercinlik Army Air Base, (Turkish: Ankara Güvercinlik Kara Hava Üssü) (ICAO: LTAB) is a military airport of the Turkish Army located in Güvercinlik of Etimesgut district, 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Ankara in central Turkey.

Ankara Güvercinlik Army Air Base

Ankara Güvercinlik Kara Hava Üssü
Summary
Airport typeMilitary/civil
OwnerTurkish Army
OperatorGeneral Staff controlled units
General Command of Mapping
Army Aviation School
1st Army Aviation Regiment
Ankara Gendarmerie Aviation Group
ServesAnkara, Turkey
LocationGüvercinlik, Etimesgut, Ankara
Built1933
In use1933-1955 civil
1958-2002 military
2002-present military/civil
Elevation AMSL821 m / 2,694 ft
Coordinates39°56′05.82″N 032°44′26.79″E
Map
Ankara Güvercinlik AAB
Location of airport in Turkey
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,022 6,635 Asphalt
Source: DAFIF[1]

The air base hosts General Staff controlled units, General Command of Mapping's aviation unit, Army Aviation School, 1st Army Aviation Regiment and Ankara Gendarmerie Aviation Group. The airport is open to general aviation for civil domestic flights with permission.

History

With the foundation of the Turkish State Airlines Enterprise (Turkish: Devlet Hava Yolları İşletmesi) (DHY), the predecessor of the Turkish Airlines (THY), in 1933, regular domestic passenger flights started the same year between Ankara and Istanbul via a stopover in Eskişehir. The airport in Güvercinlik became the first airport of Ankara.[2]

In 1935, a training and a maintenance service center were established by the Turkish Aeronautical Association (Turkish: Türk Hava Kurumu) at the airport. The center, called Türkkuşu (for "Turkish Bird"), carried out revision services to the DHY in two hangars until its relocation to the nearby airport in Etimesgut in 1945.[3]

On February 13, 1947, the first international passenger flight of the DHY departed from the Güvercinlik Airport for Athens via Istanbul.[4][5]

Güvercinlik Airport served for the city of Ankara 22 years until 1955 when the civil flights were transferred to the newly completed Esenboğa Airport.[6] Maintenance facilities were relocated to Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport the same year.[7]

The Army Aviation School (Kara Havacılık Okulu), which was established in 1948 at the Turkish Army's Artillery School in Polatlı to train pilots and flight equipment technicians for reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters of the army and the gendarmerie, was deployed in 1958 to Güvercinlik Airport.[8]

Following the re-establishment of the aviation branch of the Turkish Navy in 1968, the first naval helicopter pilots were trained by the Army Aviation Command's flight school at the Güvercinlik Army Air Base.[9]

Currently, the air base is owned and operated by the Turkish Army. However, the military airport is open to general aviation for non-scheduled civil domestic flights only with permission according to a "Protocol on the Use of Military Airports by Civil Aviation" signed on July 22, 2002, between the Turkish General Staff and the Ministry of Transport. Civil aircraft, foreign flagged or Turkish, may make use of the maintenance facilities at the base with permission. Aircraft with any foreigner crew member, however, need to obtain a special permission to use the facilities. No staying overnight is allowed at the airport.[7]

Units and equipment stationed

Following units and their equipment are stationed at the air base:[10][11]

  • General Staff controlled units
    • Special Aviation Group Command (Özel Hava Grup Komutanlığı)
      S-70A helicopters and CN235-100M transporters
    • GES Aviation Group Command (GES Hava Grup Komutanlığı)
      CN235-100M transporters and UH-1H, Bell 206L helicopters
  • General Command of Mapping (Harita Genel Komutanlığı)
    • Mapping Aviation Group (Harita Hava Grubu)
      Beech B200 aircraft
  • Army Aviation School Command (K.K. Havacılık Okulu Komutanlığı)
  • 1st Army Aviation Regiment (1. Kara Havacılık Alayı)
  • Ankara Gendarmerie Aviation Group Command (Ankara Jandarma Hava Grup Komutanlığı)
    • Headquarter (Karargah Kıtaatı)
      Cessna 182P Skylane aircraft and S-70A-17 helicopters
    • 1st Helicopter Flight (1. Helikopter Filo)
      Augusta Bell AB 205 and S-70A-17
    • 2nd Helicopter Flight (2. Helikopter Filo)
      Mil Mi-17-1V (VIP, gunship and transport)

1993 airplane crash

Chief of the Gendarmerie, Gen. Eşref Bitlis departed on February 17, 1993, from the Güvercinlik Air Base aboard a Beechcraft B200 for an official trip. The aircraft crashed shortly after take-off. Bitlis, his aide-de-camp, the pilots and a technician were killed.[12]

The pilot, who had VIP green card certification for excellence in flying, had switched the airplanes before the flight after having realized that the cockpit was not in order. The statement of the Chief of the General Staff, Gen. Doğan Güreş, that the accident on that snowy day was caused by atmospheric icing was denied by the crash investigators.[13]

Other airports in Ankara
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References
  1. Airport information for LTAB at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
  2. Baykal, Osman Gazi. "Türkiye'de İç Hat Uçuşları" (in Turkish). Airkule.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  3. "History-Aircraft Maintenance and Repair in Turkey". Yurkish Technic. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  4. Altıngöz, Firuz (2006-10-15). "Dünden Bugüne Türk Hava Yolları-İki Özdeş İsim, Türk Hava Yolları ve DC-3" (in Turkish). Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  5. "Türk Havayolları Tarihi 1933-2007" (in Turkish). SlideShare Inc. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  6. "Ankara Büyükşehir Belediyesi Nazım Projesi-8. Bağlantı Sektörleri-8.1 Ulaşım" (PDF) (in Turkish). Ankara Büyükşehir Belediyesi. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  7. "Ankara Güvercinlik Havaalanı" (in Turkish). HayatForumda.com. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  8. "315. Kd. Kara Havacılık Komutanlığı 1. Alay Güvercinlik/Ankara" (in Turkish). Facebook. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  9. "Deniz Hava Üs Komutanlığı-Türk Deniz Havacılık Tarihi" (in Turkish). DzKK. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  10. "Turkish Army Aviation". Ole Nikolajsen. 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  11. "Turkish Air Force/Türk Hava Kuvvetleri-Ankara/Güvercinlik (LTAB)". Scramble on the Web. Archived from the original on 1 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  12. "Eşref Bitlis Olayı" (in Turkish). turksiyer.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-25. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  13. "Eşref Bitlis'in Ölümü-Buzlanma yok!". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 16 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
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