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Josh Overton, the new manager at the New Tazewell Municipal Airport, with his grandfather Wayne Coffey, who was instrumental in getting the airport started in the early 1970s. (Photos submitted)

This photo hanging in the airport’s office shows the original runway in a grassy field situated between Blue Top Road and Lone Mountain Road in Tazewell.

Today the airport has a mile-long runway, 24 T-hangars and a maintenance hangar/office.

In the early days pilots had to park their planes on wooden planks to keep them from sinking into the grass.

Wayne Coffey speaks to a group of kids in front of his plane during an Airport Day in the early 2000s. Josh Overton wants to bring events like that back to the New Tazewell Municipal Airport.

The maintenance hangar is adjacent to the airport’s office/conference room/lounge building.

After the runway expansion, larger aircraft including Lear jets and King Airs can fly in and out of the New Tazewell Municipal Airport.

The New Tazewell Municipal Airport has grown considerably since it first opened as the Claiborne County Airport in the early 1970s. From its origins as a tiny dirt strip in the middle of an old cow pasture the airport now boasts a mile-long lighted runway, a rotating beacon, a partial parallel taxiway, 24 T-hangars, and a large maintenance hangar adjacent to an office/conference room/lounge area.

Josh Overton has recently been named as the new manager for the airport. His grandfather, Wayne Coffey, played a big role in getting the airport started. Overton remembers growing up around the airport when it hosted cookouts and fly-ins. It’s where Coffey taught him to fly and he wants to bring that community environment back.

“It’s very humbling that I have the opportunity to do it. This place is extremely sentimental to me as well. I grew up here, this is now the third generation of our family that’s here and I really want to make it live to its potential,” Overton said. “It’s a beautiful airport in an absolutely gorgeous location in the country. We have a lot of land and a lot of good people here. In my opinion it has the potential to be an award winning airport in Tennessee.”

Coffey is a proud grandfather who is happy to see his legacy continue to grow through the airport and his family.

“Josh is a licensed commercial pilot. He’s taking it over and trying to manage it so they will have the services that they need. I’m very proud of him, he’s done an excellent job of learning,” Coffey said. “It means a lot to me that we have someplace where people can learn to fly, they can get charter work, commercial aviation work — and it’s important for the community. Today the third question asked by industry about coming into an area is ‘Do you have an airport?’ It’s right behind water and electricity.”

Coffey said the Chamber of Commerce first started the idea of opening an airport around 1970 because it was important to industry wanting to operate in Claiborne County. At that time he and Danny Stone were the two youngest members of the Chamber and they both enjoyed flying so they took the project head-on.

“We didn’t have anything back then. We had to go to Morristown or Knoxville or Middlesboro,” he said.

They went through the county as well as the cities of Tazewell and New Tazewell to get funding to start the airport. The first contract was for a grass strip where the current runway is now.

Coffey was the first FBO manager and he said that first FBO operated out of a tent.

““We had a cooler of Cokes and some chairs we brought down from the funeral home. People would sit under that tent and then go out and get in their plane,” he said. “We had to park them on wood planks so they wouldn’t sink into the grass.”

A 3500-foot asphalt runway was paved a few years later.

“It was slow getting the grants worked out so I decided if we were going to make a success out of it we were going to have to put some energy into it,” Coffey said. “We put energy into it, bought some airplanes, put in some instruction, some charters and some sales.

“After we got to the point where we got out from under the tent, we bought an old trailer frame and took it and built a three-room office area. Later on we were able to get money for the building and hangars.”

Eventually the city of Tazewell was unable to keep up with the costs of the airport and the county allowed New Tazewell to take it over.

“Bud Chadwell was the mayor at the time and he was very instrumental in getting things done,” Coffey said.

In May of 1998 a 10,000 square foot prefab maintenance hangar/office building was constructed.

By that time the airport had flight school, a place for businesses to come when they landed and the airport also hosted several community events annually.

Coffey said he had a stack of books filled with the names of people who he had taught to fly in New Tazewell.

The airport grew to have 24 T-hangars. The extension of the runway to a full mile was completed around 2010.

Overton said that allowed jets to fly in to the airport.

“When it was a 3500-foot runway we could get a lot of small planes — twin-engine planes with four to six seats and single-engine aircraft trainers,” he said. Now that it’s a 5,000-foot runway we can get jets in here, we can get King Airs and larger aircraft that can carry ten people. They can go further and they can come in from further places, too. Instead of coming in from Nashville, now we get people from as far away as California.

“It really expands our operability here. Now we’re pretty much unrestricted, an airliner can’t land here but just about anything other than that can.”

Coffey said one of the first groups to call with interest in using the airport was cattle breeding people from Illinois and Indiana.

“Cattle became a big part of what we were doing at the time. This airport also served as a rescue place for helicopters to come in and pick up sick people,” he said. “We had Lear jets, Citation jets, King Airs, Queen Airs, all of these different aircrafts were used to transport patients to different hospitals. I flew as far as Louisville. Others would go different distances depending on what the person needed.”

The New Tazewell Municipal Airport would host an annual Airport Day for the community along with several weekend fly-ins put on by various organizations.

Today the airport is primarily used by banks and other local businesses along with out of town developers and government officials.

“We have a lot of tourism in this area as well with Woodlake being right here, all of Norris Lake, the summertime is our busiest time of year with people from all over coming to visit the area,” Overton said. “A lot of people fly in to go to the golf course or to do weekend trips.”

He remembers those special events the airport used to host and wants to bring that community involvement and family atmosphere back.

“I grew up here and my granddad taught me to fly. I’ve got a career in this industry now and I really give a lot of credit for my success to him and all the people that were at this airport. There was a big community involvement too,” Overton said. “Usually in aviation it’s a very helpful and learning environment. If people come to the airport willing to help and learn, wash an airplane for flight time or whatever it may be, people take really kindly to that. They’ll take you up in their airplane and show you around. You get to learn a lot, you get job opportunities and all types of things.

“Growing up and even to this day whenever I go through town people will tell me about riding in papaw’s airplane and how cool it was to see the lake and see their house. Those guys seemed to touch a lot of people with that and open their eyes. It’s things like that I’d like to bring back and I think we have a bright future ahead.”

Overton’s plan is for New Tazewell Municipal Airport to be one of the most general aviation friendly airports in East Tennessee.

“We’ve reached out to people who already use the airport — businesses in the area and so forth,” he said. “I’m going to try and help them grow at the airport as much as we can whether that be building more hangars, having a friendly environment or getting jet fuel — jets take a different type of fuel and we’re working to get that here.”

He also said the keeping flying affordable is a top goal

“A big thing about aviation that people misconstrue is they think it’s only for wealthy people. The truth is, especially in a place like this, it’s people who love flying and love being around airplanes and just want to find a way to do it,” Overton said. “When people around you help with maintenance or training and things like that, you can actually get into it. I compare it to buying a boat. You can buy an airplane for 30 grand — that’s still a lot of money but it’s not a million dollars or anything either. I want to try and help keep it affordable here so we can have people from the community or anywhere that just love flying, that’s the type of people we want to come here and hang out.”

He has also reached out to several aviation foundations including the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association), the RAF (Recreational Aviation Foundation), Civil Air Patrol and the Experimental Aircraft Association.

“Those groups do things to help airports really become a destination. For instance, hosting campsites nearby, hosting fly-ins where people come and have landing competitions, and a lot of community outreaches,” Overton said.

He also wants to bring back a flight school to the site and reinstitute Airport Day so the community can come visit the airport, see it in action and even take a ride on a plane.

“There are good opportunities right now within Tennessee. There’s a TCAT school in Morristown where you can get your aviation mechanics license for free. It’s a two-year program and that can get you a great job in the industry working on airplanes. We can also have a flight school partner with a university like Walter’s State or Pellissippi to help people get a pilot’s certificate as well,” Overton said.

Overton would also like to see the airport partner with Claiborne County Schools and other groups to help kids or others in the community who might be interested in a career in aviation.

“It’s a very good career whether you’re in the flying side of it, the working on airplanes side of it, selling, brokering, there are big opportunities that a lot of people don’t have access to but they very easily could,” he said. “We want to be a positive space where people know we’re here to help.”

He’s hoping to start some of those programs as soon as this summer and sees activities at the airport growing from there.

“My goal is to have a lot of people who fly that have hangars here that are local, a lot of people that are transient from other places that are coming to see the area, a nice community space where people can come and watch airplanes,” he said. “I just want to have a really inviting space for anyone in the community that wants to get involved.

“We’ve been given a beautiful place with a great community and here on the short horizon we’re going to be doing great things here.”

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