Comments 2,476 to 2,525 of 2,562
Great Restaurant
Great 50s style dinner at this airport.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not the most friendly airport ever...
Flew in one to buy a flight bag from the FBO on-field, and was unpleasantly surprised at the brusqueness of the local pilots. It is a small, lumpy-bumpy strip with no visibility end to end (due to the grade) and very limited taxi space. The locals there, at least the one time I was flew in, seemed to barely tolerate visiting traffic. Granted its a private airport, but sheesh....lighten up, guys.
Flying Turtle Restaurant on-field.
One of my favorite $100 hamburger trips. Good restaurant (popular with locals,) and home to an ANG base. You can usually see some big KC-130s and occasionally something a bit faster out on the tarmac.
Eagle's Nest Restaurant on-field (sort of.)
Eagle's Nest restaurant is a very short walk (hundred yards or less.) Good food, good service.
Fantastic diner on field. Pies for miles!
Great food, service and PIES at this local hotspot in Urbana. Get there early for a seat on weekends.
Restaurant on field.
Can't say the Italian dish I had there was great, but I'd go back to try something else another time.
Small diner counter, friendly staff. Customs port of entry.
Very small but friendly grill on site. This airport is a US Customs Port of Entry from Canada. I believe there might be a shuttle available to Cedar Point, the best amusement park in the country.
JP's Barbeque on field. banner towing ops during OSU footbal
Decent ribs and BQ chicken on field.
Fun to watch banner towing during OSU football (if you aren't watching the game, that is.)
End of my First Commute
Landed here 4 October 1965 to begin my Air Force career and nearby Lackland AFB. I've been back many times for Air Force conferences. Traveling through here one day is where I knew I was on to something good when I was considering entering the GPS tracking business. A taxi driver who took me to my hotel had a high-class GPS tracking/taxi management/credit card terminal in his cab. The fellow was well into his 70's and I asked him how he liked the new technology. His response? "You young guys are too slow to adopt new things that make you money .. see this screen? Since I picked you up I already have my next fare lined up three doors from your hotel." I was sold.
Do not miss the river walk, San Antonio is a great tourist city.
Airpark Living
One of the nicest airparks in the US. Taxiways (grass) are separate from the streets. Driving around you wouldn't even know it's an airpark. Paved and lighted runway. Self-Service fuel.
A Home on the Prarie
I first flew in here as a pax in December 1965. This was one of the USAF's finest Technical Training Centers. Went to my first USAF tech school here, became a technical classroom instructor and worked in the school for a while (training ran 24 hours a day at the time, 4 six hour shifts, LBJ was serious about getting bombs on target).
I went back to Chanute someyears later and became a computer geek, back when core memory was a significant step up from drum memory, which was the main memory (and system timing) for the early-day full task mission flight simulators. That was about the time that my technical life seemed to start accelerating at an ever increasing rate.
Since it was probably the best equipped tech training facility the USAF in its infinite wisdom selected Chanute to be closed in a down-sizing move. The people of Rantoul have done a marvelous job converting the former base property to useful functions.
Close In
One of the nation's better airports for the passenger, even though it's cramped and shows its age. Get right on the Metro, or if you're Pentagon-bound the hotels around the Puzzle Palace all have free 5 minute shuttles.
Not so much fun for aircrews because of the extensive security procedures and the "interesting" approach into 19.
Designed by Committe
There's an old joke about an animal looking like it was designed by a committee. If the animal were an airport it would be Dulles. Dulles is the "poster child" that proves letting government agencies and retired generals named "Bozo" is a bad thing. When I was traveling extensively for the US government there was a secret "caste' system that we insiders knew. If a government traveler was allowed to buy his/her air tickets into Washington National (DCA) s/he was "somebody". All others were forced to fly into Dulles.
I was here the first time for a scheduled two-hour stop here the night of 4 October 1965, so I've been a customer for a while now. Those clumsy, swaying "people movers" that go between the terminals used to drive right out the the aircraft and pick-up/drop off at the aircraft door. back in the design phase the "committee" decided that since most delays seemed to happen at the gate, they would eliminate the gate. Hmmmm. Dulles now has taxi-up gates like every other intelligent airport, but they had to keep those automotive dinosaurs around for something, government property after all.
When you die after holding high office one of the disadvantages (aside from being dead. that is) is that they will likely name something after you, and being deceased you will have little choice in the matter. People today may not realize that John Foster Dulles was a heck of a lot better Secretary of State than Dulles is an airport.
Love It/Hate It All In A Day
This is one of those airports that can provide an object less on how to do it or how not. The ground transportation is set up nicely, few other American cities have high speed rail right in the terminal (heck, few other American cities even have high speed rail ... better to whine about the price of energy than to change anything for the better), but the walks are looooong, the concourses are narrow and dark ... it's utilitarian but hardly appealing.
Found out here one day how long it takes to change the fuel control on #3 engine of a DC-10 ... 4+20 as I watched the whole thing from the concourse window ... guess Delta didn't need the gate. They did still get me home that night, though, so I won't complain.
1st Cross Country
🔗 Sun, 22 Jul 2007
— @davidsherrod at East Texas Regional Airport, United States
Second stop on my long cross country. Also grew up here.