Fly Rocky Top Is Latest in Back Country Tennessee Airstrips

The Recreational Aviation Foundation’s (RAF) Fly Rocky Top is built around a base camp and outpost concept.

Rockwood Municipal Airport anchors the network and has a 2,400-foot turf landing area. From there, pilots can fly to surrounding strips for hiking, fishing, hunting, or paddling, and come back to Rockwood to camp.

The RAF says that Fly Rocky Top is unique in that the airstrips are a combination of both public lands and privately owned property, whose owners want to welcome the flying public. Fly Rocky Top also adds the southeastern United States to a growing collection of airstrip networks around the country.

RAF President Bill McGlynn said the organization plans many more of these announcements over the next 18 months.

“Every month, we’re going to be announcing more and more of these airstrips,” said McGlynn.

While most pilots think of backcountry flying as being predominantly available in the western United States and Alaska, McGlynn says to expect announcements in additional states such as Maine, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, and Texas. McGlynn says Texas “has been one of the hardest states for us,” citing the state’s limited public land.