Moorabbin Airport Taxiway History

[Mutley_Eugenius]

OK here's one for the older generation...

 

Does anyone remember where the defunct taxiways were at Moorabbin (or have any historical airport diagrams that would have listed them) for:

 

Delta

Echo

Hotel

India

Kilo

 

taxiways? ANy info will be appreciated and you can use the below images for reference.

 

This photo shows the 09/27 grass runway along the north edge as Centre Dandenong road. Below it is the old taxiway that used to run out to the end of the 04 runways but I don't know what taxiway it was. Anyone remember its name?

 

 

I also know believe the original runways were referred to as 09/27 and 11/29. I believe the 29 runway was later sealed but I don't have a shot of it. I do know that there is a tiny piece of it left as shown in the colour below as modern taxiway Alpha 3.

 

 

[turboplanner]

This being a recreational flying site there may not be much history, but you never know.

I've used the taxiway from the runup bays to 22.

A lot of drainage went into the north (Centre Dandenong Rd) end.

I haven't found much detailed information from MAC in the past.

Maybe the museum has some details but they are more focused on aircraft.

City of Kingston Historical section may also have some photos you can put timelines to; Aerial photos are regularly updated for planning purposes and accidentally include the airport.

[Dick Gower]

11/29 was cinder covered (not sealed) but only on a short portion of the western end; the rest was grass. The remnants can just be seen in the photo. The use of the letter identifiers for taxiways is a relatively recent thing. Under the GAAP (General Aviation Aerodrome Procedures) before Class D, there was no need for taxiway letter identifiers because there was no requirement for a taxi clearance to the active runway.

09/27 was quite wet most of the year and barely used.

Interestingly, 04/22 was originally much longer. The new airport owners promised to re-align it when they built warehouses on the 22 approach but, of course, that never happened.

[RobertW]

I now live in the USA (San Diego) and have been going through all my old paperwork and came across a taxiway map of Moorabbin from 1977 so here it is, not to scale. 

RRW 2021-01-03 04.pdf

[Mutley_Eugenius]

Thank you very much to both of you!  That's great to see and interesting to hear.