This article was originally published in the Spring 2012 edition of Briefings
Access to a variety of local businesses make Hutchinson Municipal Airport-Butler Field a valuable tool for executives, according to John Olson, the airport’s public works manager since 1997. The general aviation airport has stimulated growth in Hutchinson’s economy by providing local businesses with transportation and employing people to work in the airport’s growing community. Most of the traffic at the airport is to and from local businesses and helicopter operations, Olson says.
Hutchinson Municipal served as a base for skydiving operations in the 1990s and early 2000s. The current fixed-base operators working on the airfield are Hutchinson Aviation and Helicopter Emergency Medical Service.
The airport has been used as a helicopter base for medical transportation service Life Link III since 2005. Olson says that this nonprofit consortium is by far the biggest user of the airport, sometimes flying out several times a day to care for Minnesota patients. All helicopter bases fly to the main medical base located in Minneapolis; several other helicopter bases operate in other counties that are approximately the same distances as Hutchinson is from Minneapolis. Olson calls his county a “key area” for Life Link III operations saying, “lots of good people are receiving help quickly” due to Life Link’s services. The nine healthcare organizations that make up the Life Link III consortium make transportation from surrounding counties to Minneapolis medical centers available around the clock, 365 days a year.
The Hutchinson Airport also participates in various community events in the area. It hosts Hutchinson’s annual Water Carnival, which features a fly-in/drive-in pancake breakfast on Father’s Day, as well as the Hutchinson Civil Air Patrol’s Water Carnival Pork Chop Dinner. The airport facilities, including wireless Internet and a conference room, are made available to local groups and businesses on a regular basis.
Butler Field is named in honor of Ken Butler, a 2004 Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame inductee who helped establish the Hutchinson airport in i1965. The arrival-departure terminal was named after aerobatic pilot and airport commission member Joseph Dooley.
The airport has gone through numerous changes that began in 1993–a paved runway expansion (to 4,000 feet). And construction of the arrival-departure terminal, FBO facility, parallel taxiway, apron, and entrance road. A Jet A fuel facility was installed in 2005, the eight-unit T-hangar was constructed in 2007, and the 5,600-square-foot hangar for Life Link was built in 2009.
