Findlay, US 🇺🇸 Closed Airport
US-10697
-
795 ft
US-OH
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 41.113899° N, -83.684402° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
Keywords: 7D5
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Approximately 1970-1971. The airport was last depicted on the 1970 Cleveland Sectional Chart. It was no longer listed on the 1971 Detroit Sectional Chart or subsequent aeronautical maps, indicating it ceased operations during that period.
The specific reason for closure is not officially documented, which is common for small private airfields. The closure was likely due to economic factors, the owner's retirement, or the sale of the land. The land's value for agriculture likely surpassed its value as a private airstrip. There is no evidence of closure due to a major accident or military conversion.
The site of the former Priebe Airport has been completely converted back to agricultural use. The land at the specified coordinates is now an open farm field, with no remaining trace of the runway, hangars, or any other aviation-related structures. The outline of the former airfield is no longer distinguishable from the surrounding farmland.
Priebe Airport was a private general aviation airfield owned and operated by Carl Priebe. It served local pilots in the Findlay area from approximately the late 1950s to the early 1970s. According to the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory, it featured a single 2,200-foot unpaved sod runway, designated as Runway 9/27. The airport was a typical example of a small, privately-owned field that supported recreational flying and general aviation in the mid-20th century. It never had scheduled commercial service and did not possess an official IATA or ICAO identifier; the 'US-10697' code is a non-standard identifier from a third-party database.
There are zero plans or prospects for reopening Priebe Airport. The land has been actively farmed for over 50 years, and its redevelopment into an airfield is considered infeasible both logistically and economically.
Priebe was where I remember flying out of as a kid in the 1980's and early 1990's. Sometime around 2010 the airport was sold to the county sanitation and the landfill is very nearby. However, you can still see remnants of the runway (cut in half with a road dissecting it and in very poor shape) as well as the aircraft tiedowns just west of the former runway. The old prop shop (which operated as an event space prior to being sold) has been torn down, but the hangar that Jim Priebe built in the late 1980's is still in use by the landfill for storing equipment.