On a recent rainy morning, the only wings on the runway at the Finleyville Airport were attached to the wild turkeys that live on the 66-acre site atop a hill with a panoramic view of the Washington County countryside.

"We chase the turkeys off the runway" when planes are coming in or going out, said Harry Bochter, of Pleasant Hills, one of 35 pilots who make up the partnership that owns and maintains the private airport in Union.

Planes land or take off several times a day, more so on weekends, less often when fuel prices are high.

The Finleyville Airport houses no corporate planes. There are 35 small aircraft housed in 25 hangars -- most of them built by the pilots who own the planes.

While one of the pilot/owners is a retired airline pilot and another is a retired commercial airline mechanic, flying is a hobby for most of the patrons and pilots.

"Some people golf. Some go fishing. We fly planes," said Fred Krauss, of South Park, who has been flying for 33 years.

The airport, which is open to the public, is popular with pilots who touch down just long enough to refuel and out-of-town pilots who use a hangar for a day or two while visiting friends or relatives.

Among the regular users are the plane that tows one of the advertising banners above Heinz Field before Steelers games, a Pittsburgh television station helicopter that lands to pick up a cameraman who lives nearby and Medevac helicopters.

"We're always here for emergencies," said Charles Wilhelm, who has served as airport manager since 1994.

Many people in Washington and Allegheny counties don't even know the airport exists, though it's been there since the mid-1940s. Drive on Route 88 through Finleyville and look for "Airport Road." The airfield and the planes are at the very top of the hill.

The air strip was built and operated by Stanley Siggins, Mr. Wilhelm said. When he died in 1989, the airport was purchased by a group of pilots who formed Finleyville Airport Inc.

The facility has the feel and the charm of the little Nantucket airport depicted in the "Wings" television sitcom that aired from 1990 to 1997. But there's a major difference.

"Didn't they have employees at the 'Wings' airport?" Mr. Wilhelm notes. "We don't have any employees. Just volunteers, including me."

Pilots cut the grass in warm weather and plow snow off the runway in the winter. Though huge tractors are used for those jobs, it takes about 12 hours to cut all of the grass, said Mr. Bochter, who frequently volunteers for the tasks.

Mr. Wilhelm is a former hobby pilot.

"I started flying in 1955 when my cousin and I bought a [Piper] Cub and brought it here. I stopped flying in 1985. I'm almost 81 now."

Mr. Bochter and Mr. Krauss were at the airport earlier this month to host a field trip tour for preschool children, parents and teachers from the Headstart program of Community Action Southwest, based in Washington.

The children enjoyed seeing the planes up close, touching them and posing for pictures. The bravest in the bunch sat in the cockpits.

"Oh, you have the biplane hangar open," Mr. Wilhelm said. "Even I like that."

The one-seater plane with two sets of wings is a 1943 World War II trainer that has been nicknamed Kermit the Airplane, because it is dark green and cream.

The pilot sits in an open cockpit "like a driver in a convertible," Mr. Bochter told the children. "But don't touch the propeller because that's how you start this plane."

"This is awesome," said Jacob Jerico, 3, of Charleroi. "I want to see more."

J.J. Price, 3, "is more interested in the tractors than the planes," said his mother, Vickie Borders, of Roscoe.

Mr. Bochter, 62, wasn't much older than the children on the field trip when he fell in love with airplanes.

"When I was about 10 years old, I picked up an airplane magazine in my Aunt Clara's confection store in Burgettstown," he recalled.

Mr. Bochter started flying at age 18 and served in the U.S. Navy, including a stint in the hurricane hunter airplanes.

"I never flew through a hurricane but I did fly through storms," Mr. Bochter said. A former steel mill worker, he retired from United Airlines, where he worked as a licensed airplane mechanic.

The airport owners recently learned that they have received a $7,500 grant from the state Department of Transportation to upgrade their fuel facility.

The funding comes from state jet fuel taxes and from Federal Aviation Administration taxes collected on airline tickets, aviation fuel sales and international departure fees.

Government grants "have really helped to keep the airport going," Mr. Wilhelm said. In the past, the money has been used for a number of things, including paving the runway and helping to buy the large tractors needed for maintenance.

The original owner "would not take any money from the state because he said they would tell you how to build your airport," Mr. Wilhelm said.