Nonstop flight route between Tacoma, Washington, United States and Ardmore, New Zealand:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Gray Army Airfield (GRF), Tacoma, Washington, United States and Ardmore Airport (AMZ), Ardmore, New Zealand would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,973 miles (or 11,222 kilometers).

A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between Gray Army Airfield and Ardmore Airport, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.

Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between Gray Army Airfield and Ardmore Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Gray Army Airfield (GRF):

• Gray Army Airfield (GRF) currently has only 1 runway.
• In October 1921 Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplanes flew from the Naval Station at Sand Point to a grass airfield at what was then called "Camp Lewis", located at a site just west of today’s Gray AAF.
• The field is named in honor of Captain Lawrence C.
• World War II cantonment construction involved the demolition of some of the pre-1941 buildings.
• In addition to being known as "Gray Army Airfield", another name for GRF is "(Joint Base Lewis-McChord)".
• The 1938 construction included two paved runways, a boiler plant, headquarters building, metal balloon hangar, six-plane hangar, corrugated-iron hangar, storehouse, flight-surgeon office, and film-storage building.
• The closest airport to Gray Army Airfield (GRF) is McChord Field/McChord AFB (TCM), which is located only 6 miles (10 kilometers) NE of GRF.
• August 1984 saw GAAF become one of few test centers for the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.
• The furthest airport from Gray Army Airfield (GRF) is Tôlanaro Airport (FTU), which is located 10,809 miles (17,395 kilometers) away in Tôlanaro, Madagascar.
• Because of Gray Army Airfield's relatively low elevation of 300 feet, planes can take off or land at Gray Army Airfield at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
• During the Vietnam War, GAAF not only trained helicopter units, but fixed-wing aircraft units as well.

Facts about Ardmore Airport (AMZ):

• The airfield is serviced by two R-NAV arrivals, one for each runway.
• Ardmore Airport (AMZ) has 3 runways.
• Ardmore Airport is an airport 3 NM southeast of Manurewa in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Because of Ardmore Airport's relatively low elevation of 111 feet, planes can take off or land at Ardmore Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
• The airfield has a circuit height of 1,100 ft for fixed wing aircraft, 800 ft for helicopters.
• The furthest airport from Ardmore Airport (AMZ) is Málaga Airport (AGP), which is nearly antipodal to Ardmore Airport (meaning Ardmore Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Málaga Airport), and is located 12,399 miles (19,954 kilometers) away in Málaga, Spain.
• From 1954 until 1962 the aerodrome was home to the New Zealand Grand Prix with the circuit being approximately 2 miles in length and utilising the two sealed runways operational at the time.
• The closest airport to Ardmore Airport (AMZ) is Auckland Airport (AKL), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) W of AMZ.