Gillespie Field


Gillespie Field is a county-owned public airport in El Cajon, California. It is located 11.5 miles northeast of downtown San Diego.
WWW Official Site

History

In 1942 the United States Marine Corps chose a site with east of San Diego for parachute training for the newly forming parachute battalions. In September 1942, Camp Gillespie was completed and named in honor of Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, a Marine officer who played a prominent role in the effort to separate California from Mexico in the 1840s. Three high towers were built from which the paratroopers practiced their jumps.
In February 1944, the camp was commissioned as Marine Corps Auxiliary Airfield Gillespie under the command of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. MCAAF Gillespie soon became responsible for Camp Pendleton Outlying Air Field. Among the units that transited and trained at MCAAF Gillespie were VMSB-141, Air Warning Squadron 10 and the Navy's TBM-3 Avenger torpedo squadron VT-37.
In 1946 the airfield was turned over to San Diego County and became a general aviation facility.
In 1952 the County was granted ownership of the facility by the federal government.
In 1955, the County granted a 50-year lease for of land adjacent, to the south, of the airport, which became the Cajon Speedway by 1961. The last race was run in 2004, and the County started expansion of the airport onto of this land in 2005.
In 1971 the County Sheriff stationed ASTREA, a helicopter law enforcement base at the airport, and in 1993 the San Diego Aerospace Museum located its restoration operations and an exhibit at the field.

Facilities and operations

Gillespie Field covers and has three asphalt runways:
  • Runway 9L/27R:
  • Runway 9R/27L:
  • Runway 17/35:
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2016 the airport had 226,887 aircraft operations, average 622 per day: 99.8% general aviation, <1% air taxi and <1% military. At that time there were 547 aircraft are based at the airport: 86% single-engine, 7% multi-engine, 3% helicopter, 3% jet and 1% glider.

San Diego Air & Space Museum Gillespie Field Annex

Gillespie is the home of the restoration facility Gillespie Field Annex for the San Diego Air & Space Museum. It is open to the public and has on display many vintage and modern aircraft. It has an Atlas ICBM rocket as its gate guard, a recently restored F-102A Delta Dagger with drop tanks and AIM-4A Falcon missiles, and a Grumman F-14A Tomcat used in Top Gun: Maverick.

Accidents and incidents

On 12 September 1988, a US Navy F-14A (BuNo 160675) of VF-124 with mechanical problems crashed into two hangars at Gillespie Field. Three persons on the ground and the two crew were injured, and 19 aircraft and 13 vehicles were damaged or destroyed.
On 27 December 2021, a Learjet 35 aircraft on a repositioning flight from John Wayne Airport crashed into a neighborhood east of El Cajon during an approach to Runway 27R. All four occupants were killed.