Leadership from Naval Air Station Whiting Field will host a Town Hall meeting for residents near Navy Outlying Landing Field (NOLF) Summerdale Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 3:30 p.m.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the recommencement of flight operations at the field.

NAS Whiting Field has not utilized NOLF Summerdale regularly since 2005, but with recent construction on the facility, flights are due to resume in March.  Construction was necessitated by the installation’s replacement of the venerable T-34 Turbomentor aircraft with the T-6B Texan II beginning in 2009.  The T-6B required longer runways and NOLF Barin and NOLF Summerdale were selected as the airfields best able to accommodate the extensions during a lengthy scoping process in 2010.

NAS Whiting Field’s complex is the busiest Naval aviation facility in the world and is the backbone of  Naval Aviation.  Training Air Wing FIVE, the major tenant command on the base, regularly accomplishes more than 1.1 million flight operations per year and flies more than 150,000 flight hours.  This comprises 14 percent of all Navy and Marine Corps flight hours worldwide.  The commands train approximately two-thirds of all primary Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard aviators as well as all helicopter pilots for the three maritime services.  NOLF Summerdale will be one of five outlying fields that NAS Whiting Field and Training Air Wing FIVE use to complete their T-6B aviator training mission.

With NOLF Summerdale having been inactive for such a long period of time, NAS Whiting Field desires to ensure that residents are not surprised by the return of aircraft to the field.  Members of the NAS Whiting Field and Training Air Wing FIVE teams will be available to answer questions as to the nature of flight operations, the importance of flight training to National Defense, the extent of noise that will return to the area, flight patterns, and more. 

The meeting will be held at the Summerdale Municipal Complex at 502 West Lee.  Questions pertaining to the event may be addressed to the NAS Whiting Field Public Affairs Office at 850-623-7341 or via email to jay.cope@navy.mil.