Allows planes to fly through bad weather instead of landing elsewhere

The Peachtree City Airport Authority has received a state grant to install a precision approach system at Falcon Field.

The Instrument Landing System will allow planes to land in weather conditions that are currently impossible to land in, officials said.

The current system requires pilots to “level off” at smaller altitudes as they descend to the airport. With ILS, they will be able to take a straight, steady path during descent.

But it’s the weather issue that officials have previously cited as making it difficult for businesses to locate their jets here, facing the fact that low ceilings and other inclement weather could force them to divert their jets to another airport. Still, some corporate jets do call Falcon Field home despite this, although the airport still has a far larger population of smaller, personal owned aircraft.

Falcon Field Manager John Crosby said the $818,000 grant will include relocation of the localizer and the weather data system. The latter allows pilots to call a phone number to get current weather information including ceiling, visibility and wind speed and direction before they fly here, Crosby said.

The relocation is necessary so the authority can develop more hangar space, Crosby said. There is currently no additional land to build hangars on, and thus there’s a waiting list of interested persons, officials have said.

The grant will require a 20 percent match from the Airport Authority, but there are sufficient funds on hand to accomplish that, Crosby said.