1. General Information
2. Landing Contest
3. Fly In
4. Nearby Landmarks
5. Traffic Pattern Altitude
6. Runways
7. Noise Abatement
8. Weather
9. Airspace
10. Enhancement Plans

Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport (KJVU, previously 1N9) is a moderately busy General Aviation Airport. The PA Bureau of Avaition reported for Queen City Airport approximately 53,950 annual operations during its economic impact study. Compare that with 140,000 annual operations at the nearby Class C Lehigh Valley (KABE) or 35,016 annual operations at a regional airport like Williamsport (KIPT). The area can be busy, so the following information is provided for pilots planning to visit the area so they know the local information before they arrive.

The address is 1730 Vultee Street, Allentown, PA. While driving on Vultee St, continue going straight (don't turn right or that will take you to the park). When you can't go any further, the parking lot is on the right and the entrance is up the couple steps into the building in the left.

As of 8/10/2008, Queen City Airport is hoping to acquire a more meaningful ID than KJVU (I can't think of a way to map those characters to anything!). Stay tuned. Many web sites still only recognize 1N9.

Landing Contest

Register at the airport, additional information is posted on the bulletin board in the break area.

Fly In

1. Airplane rides available Classic and unique airplanes Classic, antique and street rods display Sea Wolf Museum display Have a pilot's breakfast!
   Pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice. Donations: just $6.00 - CHildren 10 & under, $3.00. Proceeds go to Emmaus Kiwanis Community Projects
   Telephone 610-791-5193

   Landmarks

   The picture below shows some of the commoon landmarks in the Queen City area.
   
   

   
   1. Queen City Municipal Airport (KJVU)
   2. Mack Trucks building (useful to line up for Runway 25)
   3. South Mountain (not much of a mountain, but stay to the north during landing!)
   4. South Mall (useful to line for approach to Runway 25)
   5. Lehigh Valley Hospital, a common self-reporting landmark
   6. Buckeye Tank Farms, a common self-reporting landmark
   
   There are helicopters arriving and departing from Lehigh Valley Hospital (#5) and they self-report on the Queen City CTAF frequency of 122.70 Mhz. The helicopters often approach the hospital heliport from the north west (over Dorneyville on the map). There are also some training helicopters located at Queen City Airport and some that visit from the flight school at Lehigh Valley Airport.

   The Buckeye tank farms (#6) are a common self-reporting landmark for traffic arriving from the south west. If you're coming from the south, you can cross South Mountain in this area where it's lower and then make a nice leasurely approach to the airport.

   Not shown are the "Northwest Training Area" and "Southwest Training Area" are in their respective directions from the airport. You may also hear these as self-reporting areas.

   Traffic Pattern Altitude

   TPA is 1400' for light aircraft.

   Runways

   
   

   Note from the above diagram that to get from the FBO to Runway 33 requires taxiing to the right on Alpha, then left on the taxiway to Runway 33. Outdated taxi diagrams show a straight line diagonal to the runup area of Runway 33, but some of that land was sold and the new taxi ramp created. Current construction (April 2008) is creating a continuous taxi ramp along Runway 33/15.

   Noise Abatement

   There is a map for "Noise Abatement" in the FBO building at Queen City. I have added the information which is based on that map. Note the "Residential" areas to avoid. They didn't put them in the base and final legs (because there's not much you can do to avoid houses then!).

   
   
   

   As you begin the loop to the left after crossing Route 78, you'll see the "Horse Farm" below you. Note that there's not a lot of good places to ditch if there's a problem on takeoff.

   Weather

   As of early 2008, Queen City Airport has an AWOS III automated weather, and has therefore been promoted to "KJVU"! The phone number is 610-791-5463, and radio frequency is 127.875Mhz. Since it's new, this is not found in older documents.

   NOAA KABE weather is here. Note that South Mountain on the south side of the airport can cause the winds to be slightly different than reported at K1N9. Check the windsock in the middle of the airport and the AWOS above. The winds often favor Runway 25 and that is the prefered runway when winds are calm. Listen on the CTAF during approach, or send out a question if it's quiet. Runway 33 is probably the next most common runway, followed by Runway 7. There's often a little turbulence from uneven heating of the surface as you get below traffic pattern altitude.

   Airspace

   The airspace of Queen City is Class C because of the KABE airport. The bottom of the mushroom is 2200' above the airport, or 1900' just to the west. The airspace to the north and east of the airport is Class C to the surface. Note that there's a "cutout" in the surface area. See close up of Class C airspace below.

   
   
   

   The cutout in the Class C space wraps right around the airport such that you'd have to bust into Class C space to land. That's OK, just land normally, but keep in mind that Lehigh Valley Airport (KABE) prefers that pilots do avoid the imaginary extensions of their runways (so if you do a normal traffic pattern, you're fine).

   Maps above made from Google Maps. Closeup of airspace is from Skyvector.

   Enhancement Plans

   Possible enhancements is shown below (see original in the break room at KJVU).

   
   
   
   Map of possible enhancements.
   
   
   Map of possible enhancements (detail).

   ---

   
   Lehigh Valley General Aviation Association
   Queen City Municipal Airport (KJVU)
   Queen City Municipal Airport at Wiki
   Lehigh Valley Airport (Allentown-Bethlehem Easton, KABE)
   Gateway Aviation
   Flight Aware-1N9
   Flight Aware-KJVU
   KABE weather
   KJVU weather
   Flyin Phil at KJVU
   
   
   

   ---