SUMMERDALE, Alabama —After more than 10 years, Naval Air Station Whiting Field resumed flight training at Navy Outlying Landing Field Summerdale on Monday, March 14.

Commissioner Chris Elliott participated with NAS Whiting Field Commanding Officer Capt. Todd Bahlau in slicing the red, white, and blue ribbon.

“We have always had such a great relationship with the Navy and we are happy to welcome them back to Baldwin County,” said Elliott during Monday’s ribbon cutting ceremony.

NAS Whiting Field has not utilized NOLF Summerdale regularly since 2005, but with recent construction on the facility completed, flights are due to recommence. 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.

The construction project, estimated at $36 million, was conducted by Head Inc. with finishing work being done by Ohopaki General Contracting out of Navarre, Florida.

“We are thrilled to be back in Summerdale,” Bahlau said. “Planes have been flying here since before World War II and Baldwin County has always been a great supporter of Whiting Field. We’re just happy to be back.”

NAS Whiting Field’s complex is the busiest Naval aviation facility in the world and serves as 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. 

More than 700 student military aviators completed their primary flight training through Training Air Wing FIVE in 2015. This comprises approximately two-thirds of all primary Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard aviators. TRAWING-5 also trains 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.

The others are NOLF Barin, Evergreen, Brewton, and Choctaw.

Navy Outlying Landing Field Summerdale has played an integral part in NAS Whiting Field’s military pilot training mission, dating back to its original construction date of 1943. Over the last 10 years, there has been a pause in flight operations due to the change in training aircraft runway requirements that led to a military construction effort that started in 2011. During the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s this airfield supported training flights from both Training Air Wing FIVE at NAS Whiting Field and Training Air Wing SIX at NAS Pensacola in support of T-34 touch and goes. The last significant number of operations that occurred at NOLF Summerdale was in 2005, when Training Air Wing SIX began their T-34 to T-6A transition.  Since 2005 the airfield has served as a “low approach” only airfield due to the runway length restrictions.  

Training pilot Lt. James Hubbard said while they were waiting for a break in the clouds, full-time training flight operations with the T-6B Texan II were expected to begin on Monday.

“The production of pilots for our national defense is just as important now as it was when Outlying Field Summerdale was first constructed in 1943,” Bahlau said. “The completion of the runway extensions at Summerdale reestablishes a key asset for our mission and will help ensure years of safe, productive flight training for our student aviators.”