Airport comments for North America
Comments 4,601 to 4,650 of 4,733
Flight School
Location of my flight school, first solo, first cross-country and check ride.
Great Airport
Really nice airport just south of downtown San Antonio.
Flight Training
Did some flight training here. Not a good school but a great airport.
Home of Avionics Unlimited
The best avionics toy store in our area.
1st Solo
My first cross-country solo.
Cheap Fuel
Good self-serve fuel stop. Cheapest fuel in the Houston area.
1st Airport
Landed her the day after my check ride. First airport as a real live private pilot.
N6616J Home Airport
My home airport for my 1968 Piper Cherokee 180D.
Hermiston, OR
Hermiston is a great little airport in NE Oregon just a couple miles south of the Columbia River on the Washington/Oregon border.
The 4,000 paved runway is in great shape (being overlayed in the fall of 2007) and fuel is among the cheapest in the area.
Be careful of the restricted airspace immediately to the West (the Boardman Bombing Range Complex).
There is an available crew car in decent shape.
Good Place for Lunch
Whoops, scrub the last comment, it was meant for Lachute, not Mont Laurier. Mont Laurier has a nice little snack bar/restaurant right beside the ramp, great for breakfast or lunch. Look for the Piper on a post. It is alot nicer to eat there now that there is a no smoking law in Quebec!
Good Place for Lunch
A great little airport, close to Montreal and Ottawa, run by nice people. The restaurant is great, or you can borrow a bicycle to ride into town.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
Or clear Canadian Customs when returning to Canada - the strip crosses the border, and both countries have a customs post on the road beside the ramp. Don't forget to phone first and give them the required notice!
Light rail
I live in Orleans but my hangar is at Carp. Light rail would solve lots of problems. I think Carp and Arnprior are the only local airports to permit the building of private hangars at reasonable cost.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
US Customs officers will drive over from the bridge to clear you. Even on a Sunday, only 1 hour notice required!
KHCD
Very old view.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
Clear Customs here if flying from Ontario or Quebec to Vermont/New Hampshire. Nice places to eat downtown - it's a university town.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
Efficient place to clear customs and get fuel (if required) flying South from Ottawa.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
Cleared US Customs here when returning from the Bahamas. Surprisingly friendly and efficient Customs officers. You have to taxi to the other side of the field for gas/food/parking.
Expensive!
The most expensive place I have ever landed at. Landing fees, Customs fees (although we cleared Bahamian Customs earlier in Eluthera), FBO parking fees, very expensive avgas, fuel delivery charges, service fees for the FBO, VAT on everything.
Great Place for a Family Vacation
Flew here direct from Melbourne Florida. The airport is an old US Navy facility, now a civilian strip with customs and fuel by prior arrangement. Stayed at the Duck Inn - four bedroom cottage surrounded with orchids and fruit gardens. Rented an old (1960s) car from a local and toured Eluthera for six fabulous days. We will go back someday.
Caution Density Altitude
I landed here when my spouse demanded a pit stop enroute Pheonix. Don't expect that it will cool off in the evening - it never cools off here. Elevation 4,300 ft, but density altitude in the afternoons with temperatures 120F - over 9,000 ft. We used about 4,500 ft of runway to take off, just two people in a Baron B-55.
Pick Up Your New Pilatus PC-12
Stopped here enroute Arizona. There is a large Pilatus dealership on the field. We sat drinking our water while watching a private owner inspect his brand new Pilatus. Jealous? Me?
They had a BBQ going and we got free burgers - so we didn't feel too bad.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
A nice convenient little airport to clear US Customs if you are heading West from Southern Ontario.
So Close to Halifax and Dartmouth
A great little airport and so convenient to downtown Dartmouth and Halifax. I flew in here as a passenger in a Sea King many times during my Navy years. I went here once in my Baron to visit friends in Halifax - shortly afterwards I heard Shearwater was closed to commercial and GA traffic again, perhaps for good.
First GPS Approach to Minimums
I flew my Baron into Kap for a Hope Air mission in 2004. I took Simon Garrett from Rockliffe along for the company and some Multi-IFR experience. We filed IFR which was a good thing since it was IMC from North Bay to Kap. We flew the GPS Approach to minimums and taxied to the terminal in heavy rain. Then we had to wake up our passenger who fell asleep departing Ottawa. At least he had confidence in our abilities.
Gosh!
Not to be missed by fans of the movie. Preston is the hometown of filmmaker Jared Hess, who filmed Napoleon Dynamite there. It has been called the "middle of nowhere" and that is an apt description. In Idaho, but just a few miles north of the Utah border. The mountains are still high and rugged (9,500 ft) but the valleys are wide in this part of Idaho and there are lots of farms.
I landed at Preston (U10) before noon and taxied in to the "terminal". The airport was at 4,700 ft elevation and it was very hot and dry. There was self-serve fuel. There was a little lounge and washrooms that reminded me of the old clubhouse at Rockliffe Flying Club - you use pliers to turn on the water! There was an unlocked courtesy car in the carport beside the terminal, but no ignition key for the vehicle. I looked all over for a key or someone who had a way to get into town. There was NOBODY around - I stayed there for 90 minutes, and no one came by. No cars drove by. I looked in several hangars, there were vehicles parked in front, but nobody there. So, since the temperatures were already climbing into the 95+, and the forecast was 108F for the afternoon, I grabbed a granola bar and a bottle of water out of my cooler and departed for Wyoming. A shame really, since I would have loved to drive into town to have a milkshake and look at Preston High School. Gosh!!
Narrow Runway With a Twist 14 - 35
There is one narrow, curved grass runway at Elk City Idaho, designated as 14 and 35. Yes, it has a kink in the middle. It is shaped like a hockey stick, and it is narrow, with trees and brush on both sides.
About 100 metres into town, a sleepy but friendly little place that probably sees lots more activity during the Elk hunting season. Nice place to stop for breakfast or lunch when flying in the Idaho backcountry.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
I crossed the border at Coutts Alberta (CEP4) in July 06. There is a little grass runway that runs East-West right along the border, the US side of the border is Sweetgrass Montana (7S8). The highway border crossing is only 100 yards away, so the agent just walks over, like at Piney in Manitoba. I think THY was parked with the tailwheel in Canada and the front tires in the US. The border runs along the side of the runway.
There are several little air strips like this between Chilliwack BC and Piney in Manitoba. Because they are only yards from a customs office, they only require one hour advance notice (to avoid that $5000US fine). Check the AOPA International Operations website or the AOPA Airport Guide for the latest advance notice requirements for the specific airport.
When I phoned to give my one-hour notice, the US Customs agent asked me to confirm I was flying a taildragger and suggested I should not land here if it was wet, since it can be very rough.
Clear US Customs here going to the USA
I crossed the border at Coutts Alberta (CEP4) in July 06. There is a little grass runway that runs East-West right along the border, the US side of the border is Sweetgrass Montana (K7S8). The highway border crossing is only 100 yards away, so the agent just walks over, like at Piney in Manitoba. I think THY was parked with the tailwheel in Canada and the front tires in the US. The border runs along the side of the runway.
There are several little air strips like this between Chilliwack BC and Piney in Manitoba. Because they are only yards from a customs office, they only require one hour advance notice (to avoid that $5000US fine). Check the AOPA International Operations website or the AOPA Airport Guide for the latest advance notice requirements for the specific airport.
When I phoned to give my one-hour notice, the US Customs agent asked me to confirm I was flying a taildragger and suggested I should not land here if it was wet, since it can be very rough.
Light rail
Thanks for the fuel info, Tony.
There's talk at Ottawa city council about building a light rail line as far as the village of Carp. If that ever happens (and it would be years away), CYRP could become a fairly important Ontario GA airport.
Introduction to Mountain Flying
Runway elevation 5,000 feet but the mountains you fly over on downwind are 9,000 feet high! Beautifully maintained grass strip with first class camping facilities. This is a very popular fly-in campsite on summer weekends, the Maules, Super Cubs, Skywagons and other groups organise fly-ins here. JC is the first introduction to mountain flying for many folks. Go to McCall Idaho (KMYL) for advice before flying into JC, Big Creek or the other popular Idaho backcountry airstrips. I'll post some photos when I learn how.
The North Field vs. The International Airport
Runway 04 - 22 at the North end of the Ottawa Airport is for General Aviation - the flying clubs and local avionics shop are there. The Ottawa Flying Club has a restaurant open for breakfast and lunch. The same landing fees apply at the North Field.
There is an Esso Avitat and a Shell FBO just East of the main International terminal, just beside Runway 07-25 for business travellers and charters.
Self-serve fuel
Yes, they have 24-hour self-serve, and their regular customers can sign up for their loyalty program for another discount! See John at West Capital in the FBO building.
Breakfast every Sunday
The Brockville Flying Club has a fly-in breakfast every Sunday. It's hard to find official info, but I think it's 8:30-11:30 am. I hope to try it out tomorrow.
Busy GA airport, expensive gas, fees.
Busy GA airport, expensive gas, fees.
Nice little airport, good fuel prices, but nothing else,no r
Nice little airport, decent fuel prices.
Special landing/takeoff procedures
Because there's a high ridge just east of the airport, the normal procedure for landing on runway 12 is to do a wide left downwind, then follow the river valley through the town on a slant left base. Because of a hill SE of the airport, you won't see the runway until you're almost lined up on final. For departure from runway 30, just reverse the procedure (unless your plane has a very good climb angle) -- instead of trying to outclimb the ridge, make a gentle right turn after takeoff and follow the river valley southeastwards until you're high enough to get over the hills. Note also that there are trees off both ends of the runway. If you're in a low-powered plane like a Cherokee or Cessna 172, it might be a good idea to take off when the air is cool (e.g. not midafternoon on a summer day), and to be a fair bit under maximum gross weight (you can top up your fuel at Pembroke [YTA] and Peterborough [YPQ], which are both only 62 nm away and have long paved runways), though the gravel runway is a good length at 2,200 ft. It's a fun airport for a pilot, but note the previous comment for a passenger's perspective.
Up on a hill
This airport is up on a hill, several hundred feet above the city below and Lake Nippising. That's both a good and bad thing -- once, I was able to depart VFR when the city was completely fogged in, because the hill was above the top of the fog with blue skies above. On the other hand, if there's a low ceiling, it will be lower here than in the city.
Kingman airport
KIGM was a military training field in WW2. It had thousands of aircraft on the field, which extended quite a ways to the southwest at that time. It is much smaller now, although local lore has it that expended cannon shells and other training artifacts can be found in the desert to the south.
KIGM has an excellent breakfast/lunch cafe open every day except Monday.
Failed reliever
This airport is a join military-civilian facility in Illinois, but the civilian part (MidAmerica) was designed to server as a reliever for St-Louis (STL), just across the state line. However, it has never attracted any major airline service, and has been controversial as a result. The east runway (on the right of the image) is the one civilian one, maintained by St. Clair Co, IL., while the west runway is in the military base.
Mike's Place
Another one of those airporst many folks wonder, "where did they get that designator from"? Well this is another of those former USAF bases, originally McCoy AFB named after Colonel Michael NW McCoy. Many fly here for Disney World but I always went through here on my way to The Cape or Patrick AFB on comm projects, large and small.
Great Airport
Fantastic people. Very friendly. Drop in for a visit!
-- Art Z.
Why Is It ORD
The name is O'Hare after a WWII aviator from Chicago. But the ORD designator come from the past. The present airport is built on the site of another, older airport that was known as Old Orchard Airport. You learn a lot when you've been stuck in terminals for hours and hours ... and when your itinerary includes KORD ... bank on it.
World's busiest airport (for a week every summer)
This airport is normally quiet, but for a week every summer it hosts the annual EAA AirVenture Fly-in (often referred to as "Oshkosh"), and briefly becomes the world's busiest airport by aircraft movements. The fly-in this year is next week, starting on July 23. Here's the web site:
Friendly FBO
Comfortable FBO ... not much food, but my kids were excited by the small bags of Fritos in the vending machine (can't buy them in Canada). They had a number of DVDs available for viewing, if you were stuck there for a while.
My old home base.
I first went up in a single engine 172 here back in 7th grade for career day, flown by none other than Ohio aviation legend Norm Crabtree. I learned to fly many years later at the same airport. OSU (Don Scott to us locals,) has everything you need in an airport: lots of ground and maintenance facilities, a well operated tower, and runways that point in almost any direction you want. There used to be a restaurant on the field, but that has changed hands enough times since I flew out of there that I don't know if it's still around. Lots of flying clubs and private owners are still based here along with some impressive corporate traffic including the WCMH4 helicopter, Wendy's International, Cardinal Health, etc. OSU can be a busy airport at times with all the student traffic, corporate traffic, locals and transients, but it a great learning environment and a great place to call home.
Best Wings Weekend anywhere!
Not sure if it is still being hosted, but local legend Martha Lunken used to organize an annual Wings Weekend event at Butler County. I would fly in annually from OSU (who now hosts their own similar event, but I enjoyed the simple flight down to build up cross country time.) Was a fantastic event. Instructors donated their time to help keep pilots safe as part of the FAA's Wings program, which counted as a biannual review. All you paid for was your flight time (they even paired you up with a plane if you drove in.)
Cheapest AVGAS in Ohio!
Trained here a *lot* (home airport was KOSU), solo'ed here, took my practical here. Countless touch and goes. This is *the* place to buy AVgas in central Ohio...cheapest bar none. (Usually a quarter or more less per gallon than any of the airports closer to Columbus.)
Say hi to Roscoe, the friendly airport dog, if he's still out there...
C172 rentals, self service fuel.
Was down in NC for vacation, decided to check out in and rent a 172 to give some friends a short tour of the southern NC coast. The check out instructor was nice and pointed out many sightseeing and local landmarks. Check-out was a *little* longer than I felt necessary, but again, was partly a sightseeing tour.
Great Restaurant
🔗 Sun, 22 Jul 2007
— @davidsherrod at Brenham Municipal Airport, United States
Great 50s style dinner at this airport.