Airport comments for the World
Comments 15,917 to 15,966 of 16,008
re: Free aircraft parking
I was thinking about flying my family from Ottawa to Quebec City in my Warrior for a couple of nights -- the free parking is excellent news.
re: Alexis Park Inn
I've never been to the airport, but I remember Jay well from the aviation Usenet groups -- he seems like a good guy, and I'm glad to hear that the hotel is still working out well.
Alexis Park Inn
Nice aviation themed hotel. Say hi to Jay!
Food
Good diner
Food
Home of the monster tenderloin
Fun!
20 foot wide runway.
Sporty's
Free hotdogs.
Chik 'Fil-A
The mall North of airport has a Chik 'Fil-A. Yum.
Look out below
Lots of skydiving here.
Great Atlanta Alternative
Fulton County (or Charlie Brown as the locals call it) is a great alternative to Peachtree Dekalb (PDK) on the other side of town. It's home to Home Depot's corporate fleet as well as the former BellSouth fleet. Coca-Cola also has a large presence here as well. There is a fair amount of flight training at the field and it's also home of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Flying Club.
Home sweet home
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Flight school and aircraft rental
Maui Aviators has instructors and aircraft for rent. It's an beautiful area to fly over, you can visit some of the smaller islands this way.
Victoria Flying Club
The folks at the local flight school, Victoria Flying Club, are nice and competent and their aircraft are very well kept. Very nice area to fly around if you're visiting.
Visiting pilots
Dorval Aviation, a flight school located on the field, can rent you a C172 to fly around the area following a short rental checkout with an instructor. A C172 floatplane is also available on the river northeast of Montreal.
Great beach within 5 minutes walk
If you park on the western ramp, there is a path that takes you through a campground and then accross the road to a beautiful footpath through the woods and a fantastic beach. Beautiful place. I'm jealous of all these west coast folks.
Free aircraft parking
The local pilot's club "Les Ailes QuΓ©bΓ©coises" welcomes transient aircraft to stay for free on their ramp for up to two nights.
Mind the gap!
There's a pretty good dropoff (for the midwest) at the end of 03. With the trees there, the winds can get squirrelly while on final to 21. Not a bad idea to land just a little long on 21.
The turf runway is underused, but decent.
My aviation birthplace.
I did my Private Pilot training here.
Home base
Nice airport though it would be nicer with a restaurant on site.
Where American's Day Begins
Stopped here for fuel once in January 1967, riding in the "way back" end of a DC-8-63. From the very last rows of seats you could see the fuselage flex in turbulence. Seats weren't very comfortable and pretty densely packed, food was ... well, so-so.
Stopped here for again for fuel October 2006, riding in the "way back" end of a 747-400. Can't say that I saw the fuselage flexing, impossible to see very far forward. Seats weren't very comfortable and pretty densely packed, food was ... well, so-so.
Hmmm ... in 39 years things haven't changed much, have they?
Also known as New Tokyo International
This is where I arrived to start my three years in Japan in September 1996. The airport had only the originak runway (the one in the lower partof the photo) then. the second, parallel runway had been slated to be built for nearly 20 years but delayed by farmers in the area who din't want to sell their land. At times the protests against airport expansion reached the point of people flying tethered balloons in the path of landing aircraft ... Japan is an "interesting" country to do large construction projects.
In addition to taking many flights in and out of Narita I had the opportunity to work "inside" Narita a number of times. My organization had a contracted "greeting" facility for US forces entering Japan in Terminal 1 which we had to move several times die to construction and it was a learning experience to see what goes on behind the normally closed doors to make an airport of this size actually operate.
Cebu International, where Magellan came to stay
Another former USAF Base, Mactan is joint use now with the airlines and the Philippine Air Force. The terminal is small, only about 6 gates but quite modern. A really huge contrast with the much better known NAIA in Manila 400 miles to the north. Cebu is the "queen city" of the southern Philippines and an interesting destination, much more laid back than other Asian cities. The airport is actually in the municipality of Lapu-Lapu named after one of the original residents (also known as the Kaliph Pulaka) who wasn't exactly overcome with joy at the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and showed his displeasure by ending Magellan's voyage (and life) on the shore just north and east of the departure end of runway 4.
Trudeau's legacy
Flew out of Mirabel once, on my way to Italy (via Amsterdam). Huge beautiful terminal. It has since been closed to passenger planes, now strictly used for freight (UPS, FedEX, etc.), I believe.
Canada's PM at the time, Pierre Elliot Trudeau decided that Montreal was going to be the largest city in Canada some day (Toronto ended up winning that title), so confiscated farmland north-west of Montreal to build the airport. It never had the anticipated traffic, and was closed a number of years ago to passenger traffic.
Ironically, the power's that be decided to re-name Montreal's commercial airport, Dorval, to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, after Trudeau died.
Where my plane is hangared.
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gmap is not accurate
Since this image, the runway got concrate surface..
Swords Into Plowshares
This airport will be of interest to a lot of the Canadian readers. There's been an airport on this site since hitler began building up the Luftwaffe. After WWII it was a candaian Forces base for many years until it was closed in the early 1960's. The Germans (West Germans at the time) were quite keen on plowing it under for farmland and it very nearly was, but for some reason the USAF decided to take it over and re-open it in 1970. I was among the first USAF folk who came here in March 1970,and it was "interesting" to say the least. The German contractor hired by Canada to clean up and secure the facilities was most dutiful in following the absolute letter of the contract. Every room in every building was carefully cleaned and every door, inside and out was carefully locked. The one thing which wasn't in the contract? What to do with the keys.
My boss and I arrived at the building designated to house our workshop one morning and the representative from Civil Engineering, the base "land lord" told us .. "The forklift will be here in a moment or two." "Forklift", we queried. We soon found out. On the pallet the forklift was carrying was 4 each 55 gallon steel drums, all full of keys. lacking specific instructions on what to do with thekeys the contractor threw them, un-tagged into steel drums for "safe keeping". "Yours are in their somewhere", our landlord said, "Just let me know when you find them and I'll send the barrels to the next lucky customers."
Needless to say, I'll always remember Zweibrucken.
After the Americans decided we no longer needed the base, better German planners than the ones a few years back made the airdrome into an important regional airport, so perhaps all the time I spent there looking for keys wasn't a waste at all ;-)
My favourite airport!!!
This is truly my favourite airport. Not only can one consider it the gateway to beautiful Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but I had the best reception ever, walking into the "terminal". This is a very small operation ... but a number of the local men (airplane enthusiasts all) were just hanging out there, chatting away, happy to talk to me about our plane, the flight, their planes and so on. We really had to tear ourselves away, as I think they would have chatted with us well into the night ...
A foggy place
Landed here in our four-seat plane. Very cool to be in line in between huge jets, some landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. Halifax proper is very foggy, and even at the airport, the early morning can be a bit iffy. There is a Tim Horton's (coffee/donut shop) just outside the terminal, maybe a 5-minute walk, tops.
The best way to get to Gaspe!
Gaspe is a beautiful part of Canada, but it's so far away!!! Flying over the interior, all one sees are a few logging roads ... most of the settlement is on the shores of the peninsula. The airport staff were helpful ... the place was not busy at all. Car rental at the airport was no problem.
Nice place to visit
I flew in here and back out in my only C-124 rides back in 1969. I was supporting our RF-101 Vodoos based at Upper Heyford, UK and one had an air refuelingproblem. I grabbed my tools and tester, flew down here on "Old Shakey", fix the problem aircraft in 5 minutes flat and spent the rest of a lovely week waiting for another "Shakey" flight back to the cold and dreariness of "Upper Haystacks". Moron is near the city of Seville and also quite close to the Rock of Gibraltar. Lovely countryside and people.
Scary take off
As a reluctant small plane flyer, I found the landing, but particularly the take off a bit scary at this airport. There is a very tall rock formation (cliff?) at one end of the runway, and one has to climb quickly, and navigate past it. Coming in to land, we executed a number of steep turns to position ourselves, and I really hate that tilty feeling ... Still, when you land, you're in Canadian Shield topography, with a beautiful view all around. Don't miss the ice cream at the Dairy on the far side of town!!!
Another Great Home For A Year
I spent the year of 1972 at Khorat. Like my earlier time at Tahkli it is hard to think why a person would have such fond memories of a place ... but I do. Again I spent most of my year there building drop tanks, leading a wonderful crew of Thai civilian workers. The end of my tour there encompased the last Linebacker missions when our F-105s and F-4's flew round the clock stopping only when all the tanks we could build were used up. The B-52s from Guam and Utapao flew missions right into the "Downtown" Route packs and even shot down Migs on their own. A sad thing indeed, war, but at least we got the air war stopped ... I'll leave it to others to battle over the rights and wrongs, I served.
Nice Airport
Landed here in 1997 ... flying with two children under 5. I was half asleep, but remember the bathrooms being very clean, and the terminal being very easy to navigate.
Fond memories
Gatwick was the first airport I ever landed at outside of North America. It was my first time flying overseas, and we flew Wardair (a Canadian airline, sadly no longer in business). I remember the excitement of seeing the green fields of England after the long trans-Atlantic flight. When the plane landed, I started to clap, and all of the passengers joined me in spontaneous applause.
Almost 20 years ago, I remember the access to the tube to get into London was good, as was access to the south, where we were headed.
Easy Manhattan Access
Yes, the FBO will drive you to the LIRR station, and it's only an hour or so into Penn Station. Allows you to ease into the craziness of NYC. And who can resist taking a picture of the "Hicksville, USA" sign when the train stops there???
If I recall, the landing fee was something ridiculously low. $2 US or so.
A Home For An Eventful year
I lived and worked at Takhli Royal Thai AB for a wonderful year of my life in 1967. There was a war on so I wonder that I consider it "wonderful" but it was .. my first real time truly away from home and holding down a really responsible job ..building drop tanks for the mssisons we were flying over North Vietnam.
I'm glad to see the old place is still going strong. The former American quarters are west of the south end of runway 36 and the shiny new maintenance complex to the est is all new in the past few years ... I dearly miss my time there and I miss the wonderful Thai workers I was priviledged to lead as we did our bit to help.
Great Airport for Visiting Manhattan
We have flown to Teterboro the past few years on our annual trip to Manhattan. While we feel out of place landing in our four-seat plane surrounded by business jets, it's very convenient to get into NYC.
The staff, from the ground crew to the desk people are universally kind and attentive (even the customs officers were friendly!!!). They make us feel like royalty. My kids love the toiletries in the women's bathroom.
It's only a 30-minute cab/car ride to Manhattan (depending on time of day and where in the city you are headed).
My Home for Three Years
I was the communications planner/program manager at Yokota for the years 1996 through 1999. Among the neat aviation-related things I got to do were the installation and commissioning of the runway 18 ILS ... a ssytem we physically removed from Minot AFB Montana, shipped across the pacific and put back to good use at Yokota. Mnay civilian plots have been through Yokota as a significant part of its traffic is contract passenger and cargo flights and I recall a number of times when I was there that Northwest used it to land when weather gave them a problem at Narita
My Current "Home base"
This former USAF installation is now run by a hybrid government-commercial development corporation. in addition to hosting many ground-based industries, casinos, hotels and recreatioal facilities it is being built up as a major international airport, slated to be linked to Manila via high-speed commuter rail and US-standard expressways ala the current Hong Kong airport.
If you zoom in just to the east of the approach end of runway 02R you'll see the separate runway and hangar facilities of Omni Aviation a busy flight school and FBO situated in the former home of the Clark AB Aero Club ... and an excellent place to base if you're in the Philippines. best of both worlds ... fly out of a major international airport but with your own runway and facilities.
Decent food
Linday has a small restaraunt on the airfield that has decent food and seems to attract a fair amount of locals from town. One of the better on airport restaraunts in southern Ontario
My Current International Gateway
I presently make my home in the Philippines in Bulacan, about 25nm north of NAIA. NAIA is the major Philippines airline hub. The current government is working to move a lot of airline traffic to the former Clark Air Base, about 40nm North of the city ... which will be known as DMIA (after the father of the current Philippine Republic president) and is already a significant air freight hub.
Just had to get this one in while it is still on the map
One of the airports I visited on my solo cross-country training flights. I note thta it is now NOTAMed permanently closed so I guess it will be off the map soon. The approach into runway 29 at night, past the arprtment houses and condos wwas "interesting".
My Fourth Airport
The forth airport I ever landed an airplane at ... long before I was a licensed pilot but flying with my surrogate father, Eddie Gorski. (too bad we don't have away to add "fallen flags", the airports of our youth now gone forever ... who remembers Towaco and Totowa-Wayne?) Among many other things Eddie was the manager of Teterboro from the mid-30's until WWII forced all General Aviation operations west of the Delaware River. If you zoom in you'll see a large building at the northwest corner of Malcolm and Industrial Ave's ... this is the site of what was in my youth the "Bendix hangar", named for the owner of Teterboro for many years, the Bendix Corp. but originally the site of Tony Fokker's US manufacturing facility. The Borough of Teterbor in which the airport sits in had a population of 25 in the last US census and was known as the Borough of Bendix during the years 1937 through 1943. A fascinating place. If you fly in there take the time to visit the NJ Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame just east of the field.
Where it all began
As a boy I lived across the street from this airport and it's part of my earliest memories. I "hung out" there nearly every free moment from the time I was 6 years old or so until I left for the USAF in 1965. Got my private there in 1964. Lincoln Park is notable as the long-time business interest of Ed and Jue Gorski (see NJ Aviation Hall of Fame). Other CFI's there who helped shape my life were Johnnie Schump, Charlie Stephan, Lenny Landers, Tony Farrell and William (Wild Bill) Fedishen. Still an active and well-run little operation, close in to the NY Metro area.
re: Disneyland?
I think Long Beach (LGB) has better facilities, but I'm not sure of the costs. I have a friend who did flight training there a while ago, so it at least used to be GA-friendly, but things might have changed.
Disneyland?
I'm interested whether this is the best GA airport for a day trip to Disneyland. Comments?
Ferry is free
The new ferry is free, at least so far. If you fly in with four people, that's a significant saving at $5.50/person.
Porter FBO
I tried out the Porter FBO yesterday. The fuel was expensive, but they waived the ramp fee because I was a COPA member (I think that the offer's good only for summer 2007). It's not a bad FBO, aside from the cost ($35/night tie-down, etc.).
Musharraf plane attack
This seems to be the air base where President Musharraf's plane was fired on on Friday 6 July 2007.
Ralph Fox is based here!
π Wed, 18 Jul 2007
β @N55736 at Wilmington International Airport, United States
Use ILM Aero when you are here!