Mainz-Finthen Airfield
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| Type | Public | ||||||||||||
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| Owner | Flugplatz Mainz-Finthen Betriebs GmbH | ||||||||||||
| City | Mainz | ||||||||||||
| website | |||||||||||||
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| Scenery tile | e000n40/e008n49 | ||||||||||||
| TerraSync | not available | ||||||||||||
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Mainz-Finthen Airfield (german: "Flugplatz Mainz-Finthen"), is an airfield located in south-western Germany, just outside the city of Mainz in the german state Rhineland-Palatine. It's home to the area's general aviation community and various flight schools.
Location
Mainz-Finthen is named after the nearby district Finthen. Distances to the cities of Mainz (9km / 5nm), Wiesbaden (14km / 8nm) and Frankfurt (40km / 21nm) are fairly small. Besides Frankfurt Egelsbach (EDFE), Mainz-Finthen is a hub for general aviation in Rhinehessen.
History
The airfield was originally built in World War 2 in a circular shape for night fighter operations. After the war was lost, the French army annexed the space and build a 1000m asphalt runway for their jet squadron. In the late 1950s the French left Germany and the airfield was used by the US army, which later positioned 20 helicopters (mostly CH-47 Chinook) in Mainz-Finthen. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the Americans left Mainz and build most of their facilities back. Today, only an old radar station and a training area indicate the former military presence.
In 2021 the runway was completely rebuilt and the label changed from 08/26 to 07/25. Runway 07 now offers a 3° Precision Approach Path Indicator on the left side.
Present use
Today, the airfield is approved for aircraft, helicopters up to 14t, gliders and ultralight aircraft. While the grass runway in the south is home to the glider community (winch and aerotow), the asphalt runway is used for handling flight school operations, day guests and corporate jet flights. A new tower building was built in 2012, which also contains the airport's restaurant. The old tower in the east is since abandoned and fenced. There are over 20,000 flight movements at EDFZ each year.
Mainz-Finthen in FGFS
In 2016, work on the EDFZ custom scenery began with a new terrain providing the correct layout of the field. The tower and some hangar buildings were modelled and other objects placed around the field. The city of Mainz was populated with osm2city objects. In 2020, the airfield was reworked and given an even more detailed layout. For glider flights there are AI thermals around the area and aerotow-scenarios from the grass runway available. Main authors are D-SVEN and D-ECHO. The complete scenery is not available via terrasync.
