Chatsworth Restricted Landing Area

The specific reason is not recorded, but the closure of a small, private RLA is almost always due to 'cessation of private use'. This typically happens for economic or personal reasons, such as the owner selling the associated aircraft or land, retiring from flying, or finding the cost and liability of maintaining a private airstrip prohibitive. It was not closed for military conversion or a major documented incident.

The site at coordinates 40.743099, -88.291198 is currently active agricultural farmland. High-resolution satellite imagery shows cultivated fields with no visible remnants of a runway, hangar, or any other aviation-related infrastructure. The land has been fully reclaimed for farming.

The facility had no significant public or historical importance. As a 'Restricted Landing Area,' it was a private airfield not open to the public. Its operations would have been exclusively for the owner's use. In this agricultural region of Illinois, its purpose was likely for personal transportation or, more commonly, for agricultural aviation such as crop dusting. The operations would have been limited to light, single-engine aircraft.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening this facility. Re-establishing an airstrip would require the current landowner to have a specific need, undergo a new certification process with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) Division of Aeronautics, and incur significant personal expense. Given that the land is productive farmland, a return to aviation use is extremely unlikely.