Grider Field (KPBF), Pine Bluff Regional Airport, Arkansas, is located approximately 36 NM southeast of Little Rock Airport (KLIT). The airport is named after J. McGavock Grider, an American WWI fighter pilot who flew for the British Royal Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force. The municipal airport dates back to 1941, built as a primary flight training airfield for the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF). Approximately 9000 cadets were taught under contract with a local flight school during WWII.
Pine Bluff Airport is a nontowered airport that has a single runway with GPS approaches to both ends and an ILS or LOC to Runway 18. It’s interesting that there are the two ways to fly to the ILS final approach course without using vectors-to-final (VTF).
