Alchemy
Well-Known Member
Best- SAN, MRY, SMF
Worst - FRA, PHL, RDU
Purely from a cool approach, good ATC, and asinine procedures standpoint or lack thereof. SAN and MRY are both simple airports with cool approaches. Who doesn't like opening the door in July to find it 72 and sunny with a cool breeze? Flying into or out of SMF to the east over Tahoe was always cool to me. Plus there's that weird little mountain north of the airport.
I've only been to FRA once but the place is mired in procedures and restrictions. They have about 100 arrivals and departures and messed up noise abatement/curfew rules that make everything a giant headache. They even tell you what runway turnoff you have to take in the jepps, and don't you dare call for your clearance unless you're 5 minutes to push! I studied the jepps for this place for about 3 hours and was still left scratching my head.
PHL is a fine overnight and the terminal is OK I guess, but I can't get over their ridiculous ramp with 75 frequencies, the controllers of which apparently do not communicate with one another at all. The fact that most of my flights here were to EWR did not help, sitting on the taxiways for 2 hrs to make a 30 minute flight just seemed silly.
RDU just had rude controllers (sorry if any of them are reading this....but yeah...it's bad). They also like to try and plan your turnoff on that short runway on the east side of the airport and cop a 'tude if you can't do it. Classic "second tier airport that thinks it's a super hub" complex.
Worst - FRA, PHL, RDU
Purely from a cool approach, good ATC, and asinine procedures standpoint or lack thereof. SAN and MRY are both simple airports with cool approaches. Who doesn't like opening the door in July to find it 72 and sunny with a cool breeze? Flying into or out of SMF to the east over Tahoe was always cool to me. Plus there's that weird little mountain north of the airport.
I've only been to FRA once but the place is mired in procedures and restrictions. They have about 100 arrivals and departures and messed up noise abatement/curfew rules that make everything a giant headache. They even tell you what runway turnoff you have to take in the jepps, and don't you dare call for your clearance unless you're 5 minutes to push! I studied the jepps for this place for about 3 hours and was still left scratching my head.
PHL is a fine overnight and the terminal is OK I guess, but I can't get over their ridiculous ramp with 75 frequencies, the controllers of which apparently do not communicate with one another at all. The fact that most of my flights here were to EWR did not help, sitting on the taxiways for 2 hrs to make a 30 minute flight just seemed silly.
RDU just had rude controllers (sorry if any of them are reading this....but yeah...it's bad). They also like to try and plan your turnoff on that short runway on the east side of the airport and cop a 'tude if you can't do it. Classic "second tier airport that thinks it's a super hub" complex.
