RAF’s ‘Fly Rocky Top’: A New Era of Backcountry Flying in the Southeast
The Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) has recently launched Fly Rocky Top, an innovative network of backcountry airstrips situated in the picturesque mountains of East Tennessee. This initiative, a key part of RAF’s wider Expanding the Map campaign, is already being hailed as the organization’s most significant achievement in the program thus far.
Designed around a basecamp-and-outpost concept, the network’s hub is the Rockwood Municipal Airport (KRKW), nestled about an hour away from Knoxville in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. A newly constructed 2,400-foot turf landing strip, aptly named “Smuggler’s Landing”, runs parallel to the airport’s existing 5,000-foot asphalt runway. From Rockwood, pilots can explore surrounding airstrips such as McGraw’s Backyard (5TN4), Tellico Plains (85TN), and Robbin’s Farm, offering a variety of outdoor activities like hiking, fishing, hunting, paddling, and camping.
What sets Fly Rocky Top apart is its blend of public land and privately owned airstrips, all open to the flying public. RAF President Bill McGlynn highlighted that approximately 75% of the U.S. population resides within 700 miles of Rockwood, making the network accessible to a vast majority of American pilots.
The RAF has plans to further extend Fly Rocky Top and has announced its intention to introduce 15 or more new or restored airstrips across the U.S. by 2026. Future announcements are anticipated in states such as Maine, Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas.
Source: AOPA — RAF Announces Airstrip Network in Tennessee