Author Topic: Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.  (Read 19047 times)

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« on: September 04, 2005, 10:28:48 PM »
Hey all pilots post a favorite airport you allways like to fly to and why you like to fly there.... becasue maybe the air traffic controlers,service,etc.Post 10 airports. Good Luck!  :D  :)



Offline 71sbeetle

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2005, 11:15:27 PM »
1- NTAA (Faa'a International, Tahiti, French Polynesia) II lived there for 20 years and I started flying there, nothing like taxiing a C152 behind a 737 or sidesteping a 747 in position for takeoff to land in my C172 :D

2- NTTP (Maupiti, French Polynesia) short runway, water all around ... enough said

3- NTTE (Tetiaroa, French Polynesia) Marlon Brando's personal island (www.tetiaroa.com) short runway (coral/sand) between coconut trees ...

4- NTTM (Moorea Temae, French Polynesia) nice runway, low altitude pattern (600ft) lots of coconut trees, water at each end and ALWAYS had crosswind (at the bottom of a mountain) of 10-35kt !

5- NTTB (Bora Bora, French Polynesia) well .... it's Bora Bora :D

6- Q99 (now E16) South County of Santa Clara, California, non towered airport

7- KMYF Montgomery Field in San Diego, California

Where I'd like to go ... St Marteen and St Barthelemy

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2005, 11:43:13 PM »
nice airports to fly to. thanks for your post.

Offline sbfi_feeder

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2005, 01:08:41 AM »
Well, I like flying to VQPR (FS2004, of course) from Khatmandu (don't recall the ICAO code now, shame on me  :oops: ) . The glide angle there is MUCH greater than 3° ! One can approach with a 737-400 at idle, with gears down, full flaps, spoilers, or whatever possible to create some drag and the plane will continue to increase airspeed.  :mrgreen: The final approach is wacky, just in the middle of a crack in the Himalayas and the runway is not that long. I once got nuts and tried to land the PSS A330 in there, as well as the LDS767. Did I overshoot the runway ? Oh no, but I had to order a new set of tires and brakes for both planes  8)  Not realistic, but very extreme at least !

Cheers all,

Ricardo
SBFI

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2005, 01:58:05 AM »
cool

Offline tyketto

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2005, 03:45:57 AM »
Quote from: sbfi_feeder
Well, I like flying to VQPR (FS2004, of course) from Khatmandu (don't recall the ICAO code now, shame on me  :oops: ) . The glide angle there is MUCH greater than 3° ! One can approach with a 737-400 at idle, with gears down, full flaps, spoilers, or whatever possible to create some drag and the plane will continue to increase airspeed.  :mrgreen: The final approach is wacky, just in the middle of a crack in the Himalayas and the runway is not that long. I once got nuts and tried to land the PSS A330 in there, as well as the LDS767. Did I overshoot the runway ? Oh no, but I had to order a new set of tires and brakes for both planes  8)  Not realistic, but very extreme at least !

Cheers all,

Ricardo
SBFI


I hear you on that, Ricardo! Paro is a hellacious one to get in and out of! I read the article in Airways on Air Bhutan, which has the only commercial service to VQPR. They just ordered 3 A319s to do it, as they have the high performance needed to fly there. There are no instrument approaches there, so if it goes IMC, the field shuts down! I've tried that field in an E170, and just about make it, but have to be sure that everything is deployed fully.

Personally, I like flying to KLAS (love that Stratosphere Visual!), CYLW (love the view of the lake on the way down!), YBCS (miss the climbout, and you're kissing the harbour!), and more recently, NGO (Centrair. if you over or undershoot, you're in the drink!)

I'll post more later. I have a number of them!

BL.

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2005, 04:25:16 AM »
great....!!! WOW ....GOOD FLYING THERE BUDDY. Iam looking for  any real flying. 1-10. name the airports and tell why you like that airport. Looking for any real pilots out there. looking for a good place to fly to. thanks ...

Offline frantzy

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Favorite airports
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2005, 02:47:30 AM »
KBFI ...great controllers & interesting mix of aircraft, it's where I learned to fly.  I was once #2 to land behind a Waco bi-plane, with a 777 behind me and a 737 on final approach to KSEA above  :shock:

PHNL... heavies galore, more great controllers.  I got my seaplane rating in the channel next to the reef runway.

Roche Harbor (Washington state)...just look at the place! http://www.lobsterfarm.biz/

Offline C172SP

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2005, 10:21:47 AM »
I'm barely past the 100-hour mark, so will you take my top 5 favorite?

1) KACK - Nantucket, MA - beautiful island airport, sharp controllers, busy mix of traffic.

2) KBHB - Bar Harbor, ME - right next to acadia national park

3) PHKO - Kona, HI - 10,000' runway... ocean on one side, volcano on the other.

4) KLCI - Laconia, NH - right on lake winnepesaukee in the foothills of the white mountains.

5) KWVL - Waterville, ME - Maine is a beautiful state to fly over. Nothing too special about the airport, but something very special about the view from a few thousand feet above it!

Offline C172SP

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2005, 10:26:46 AM »
frantzy, did you do other flying in Hawaii? I chose Kona over HNL to base my quick scenic flight. Flew around the volcano area and back to Kona. Skipped the temptation to circumnavigate the island because we were encountering some pretty good moderate with a couple real wing rattling gusts here and there.

I fly in Boston class B frequently but never into or out of a class B. What was HNL like?

Offline 71sbeetle

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2005, 10:40:07 AM »
I'll have to add that flying by LAX at around 3000ft several times on the departure end of the runways, as well as Key West, and Daytona / Cape Canaveral area .... are also nice places to fly .... but nothing beat Tahiti Mountain Flying

Offline 71sbeetle

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2005, 10:46:34 AM »
some pics (these aren't mine, I'll have to scan mine)

Tahiti Faa'a International :



Maupiti :





Moorea Temae :



Bora Bora :


Offline frantzy

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2005, 02:31:07 PM »
Quote from: C172SP
frantzy, did you do other flying in Hawaii? I chose Kona over HNL to base my quick scenic flight. Flew around the volcano area and back to Kona. Skipped the temptation to circumnavigate the island because we were encountering some pretty good moderate with a couple real wing rattling gusts here and there.

I fly in Boston class B frequently but never into or out of a class B. What was HNL like?


My mother-in-law lives in Hawaii so we visit frequently and I usually try to go flying (anyone with inlaws can relate  :lol: ).  We're always staying in Kailua on the northeast side of Oahu so HNL is our base.

A couple times I've rented a C172 from Flight School Hawaii and did an Oahu-Molokai-Maui-Lanai-Molokai-Oahu tour.  The north side of Molokai is spectacular; Maui landing had interesting gusty crosswinds; Lanai had some cool shipwrecks just off the coast.

Last time I had 8 days so I got the seaplane rating at http://www.islandseaplane.com/.  Highly recommend those guys...they are very thorough.  Takeoff at HNL, airwork off the east coast of Oahu, and touch-and-goes in Kaneohe Bay near the Marine Air Station.

Next time I'll rent an SR-22 with its faster cruise speed and check out either Kauai or the Big Island.

HNL is surprisingly accomodating and well set up for GA.  The airliners use runways 8/27, GA land planes have runways 4/22, and there are sealanes 8/27 and 4/22 for seaplanes.  

Flying VFR out the only real difference is to call Clearance and get a squawk code...runup prior to taxi...and then after getting Ground clearance to taxi, you just monitor Tower and they clear you for takeoff (rather than having you ask for it).  

VFR departure routes follow some prominent landmarks and the highways...taking a local pilot or instructor the first few times is necessary.

Arriving, you contact arrival prior to entering Class B and fly a published VFR arrival.  Final approach sometimes involves an interesting path over the passenger terminal, but is otherwise very simple.

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2005, 08:04:09 PM »
Yea sounds really fun. I live around the Milwaukee area and i love to fly at Timmarman Field in Milwaukee,WI. Its better for Private pilots. Dont fly MKE for a Private pilot becasue gas is going up there... PLUS not that good of a service. Wisconsin is a great place to fly to.


1st (best airport to fly to in the Milwaukee area)- Timmarman Field. its mostly for Student pilots. Where i got my planes there. if you not like small airports dont want to fly here.

2nd-MKE) in Milwaukee. Good service but 2-3rd class people work art the only where that small planes can park.

3rd-Madison- Flew there 4 times. good ..... nice sevice. clean and alot easyer then MKE. Made me happer.

4th-Green Bay airport-Flew there 1 time. Nice.... Nice staff. allways has a smile on there face.

5th-Found DU Lac airport- i didnt fly there but my friend did. no airport tower but nice airport. moslty tie downs for planes. and alittle $$ for parking. 210 dollors for 1 night.

Sorry i cant add any more. Thats all the airports i flew too.  :D  still a student flyer and learning more

Offline nfredrich

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2005, 01:10:50 AM »
C89- Sylvania.. if you can land there you can land anywhere

KENW- Kenosha... last airport in the counrty with parallel runways to get an ATCT... biased I work here

KRAC- Racine... biased I work here also

KMKE- Milwaukee Strange runway configurations and "Tower Dick" - nice guy

KRFD- Rockford... TRSAs are cool

and my last and most favorite airport to fly to...

KBOS- MOCHA HaGoDTI!!! cccccccccccccccya

flyMKEmilwaukee414

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Pilots...! Top 10 best airports you like to fly to.
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2005, 01:17:53 PM »
great... thank you for posting!