FBOs Around Arlington, VA

Cherokee_Cruiser

Cherokee_Cruiser

Bronteroc
I've checked the beapilot website, but now I'm looking for your opinions.

Anyone know good FBOs close to Arlington, VA? By close, I mean a 30 minute drive at most.

Any first hand experiences?

Thanks in advance !
 
Good luck buddy!

I moved there last summer and ended up moving back to Denver.

I was in Crystal City, right next to DCA and the closest was ATC over at Potomac Field, which is in the middle of a neighborhood and in a valley basically. It is also located within the FRZ so you will need special clearance to to land on their mini runway they have there. That was about a 40 min drive at 10AM. After that things are farther out.

Gaithersburg is about a 45 min drive and has some good planes and deals as far as the area goes, TonyW flies out of there.

Manassas is farther out again by a few minutes and has several options on the field there.

Leesburg is at least a 50 minute drive if you take the tollway, if you drive the "free" way on the leesburg turnpike then you are looking at an hour at least (it took me almost 2 hours one time). They have two schools there with some new airplanes and one has a new seminole that seemed pretty interesting.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about Freeway airport but I didn't poke around there too much.

After that you have Frederick which is about an hour and half at least, and then there some airports down south that are more than an hour drive.

Let me know if you find out any better info or other airports that are promising... I am interested too. Too bad traffic is so bad out there.
 
Best bets are definitely Potomac (if you can deal with the FRZ), GAI, and HEF.

Anything out of the ADIZ, and you're talking a 1 hour drive.

I commuted from Chevy Chase to FDK for my training (and even worked there for a few years). However, it was about a 40 minute drive for me. If you take the GW parkway to 495, you may be able to make it to FDK in about 50 minutes.

If you're willing to drive, I'd highly recommend FDK as it has a fantastic flight school (Frederick Flight Center), and it's out of the ADIZ (for now).

Good luck!!
 
I was in Crystal City, right next to DCA and the closest was ATC over at Potomac Field, which is in the middle of a neighborhood and in a valley basically. It is also located within the FRZ so you will need special clearance to to land on their mini runway they have there. That was about a 40 min drive at 10AM. After that things are farther out.
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Did you fly with ATC? I checked out their website, and from what I gather, it's a flying club?

Would you know if you licensed pilots can just rent planes, without joining the flying club?

Any info would be good, thanks.
 
No, I didn't fly with them, I was applying at a few places to instruct at and another place called first so I never really looked into it too hard. Oh yeah, the TSA closed down their airport for a few weeks too so I sorta forgot about them. They have a small fleet, 3 cessnas and something else. From what I could tell the student loads were pretty good and at the time you just payed a block rate. I think it may have changed in the last few months though and it may be a club now, I am not sure.
 
ATC is a club. You pay a fixed fee per month, cost depending on which plane you want to fly (the 172SP costs a little more per month than the 172N/P). There is a contract involved, basically stating that there is a 'soft' limit of 50 hours over 6 months. Fuel is not included in the price, but there is a 'fuel club' run by the airfield. $18 per month gives you a $1/gal discount on fuel. So, basically, a half-tank fill-up in the 'SP pays for the monthly charge.

Potomac is in the FRZ, so anyone wanting to fly out of there needs to go through a relatively painless (no, really!) clearance procedure. Once you're cleared, as long as you play by the rules (and they're not really as tough as they're made out to be), they pretty much let you do what you want. The owner of Potomac, Dave, is a great guy to deal with. He's got a C337 based right there, and he is very active in the anti-ADIZ/FRZ lobby.
 
There is a contract involved, basically stating that there is a 'soft' limit of 50 hours over 6 months.
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Can you explain that further ? Does that mean you're supposed to do a minimum of 50 hours of flying per 6 months? Do you know any of the fees?

Thanks!




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Also, does anyone know of FBOs at College Part airport KCGS ? I looked on airnav, and couldn't find anything.


Anyone know a realistic drive time from downtown DC (say from Washington national airport) to the Freeway airport in Bowie, MD ?



Lastly, anyone know of FBOs at Maryland Airport 2W5, in Indian Head, MD ? Again, I tried airnav, couldn't find anything.

Thanks!
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Anyone know a realistic drive time from downtown DC (say from Washington national airport) to the Freeway airport in Bowie, MD ?
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At least 40 min depending on traffic and if you are lucky. It wouldnt be that bad if they had an exit ramp by Freeway Airport there. You have to get off the highway and circle to the south by Fed Ex field and then drive up north to get to the airport. I was looking at instructing out there too but that short runway, combined with those powerlines and then the crashes they had out there had me thinking it wasn't the best idea.
 
We've had students who've lived in DC and commuted on the train up to BWI to fly with us. I don't know how long the train takes though, or how much a ticket or commuter pass costs.

Mike
 
Wouldn't it be great if they ripped up one of the multitudes of country clubs in the area and built a nice GA airport? THAT would be progress... it's unbelievable that its almost an hour drive to downtown from "most" DC area GA airports (that can accomodate biz jets).
 
VRE goes out to Manassas from Crystal City but only during the week. Manassas is where I based my plane when I was in DC. The people at Dillon Aviation are real nice as are the people that run the Manassas airport.
 
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