Advice on flying into KIND

AndrewX

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Andrew
I'm looking to travel to Indianapolis (IND) from Nashville (JWN). Based on where I'm staying, KIND is the most convenient. Is it reasonable to fly into the big airport there? I'll be in a SR20 and I'm instrument rated. Any insights on costs for landing fees and overnight parking. It looks the Millionaire and Signature are my two choices.
 
We actually got signature to waive any fees last time we went in to drop a passenger in a archer. Lady was super friendly.
 
With 2R2, EYE, and HFY all very nearby if you've got cold feet just skip IND. Can't cost you more than 15 minutes in a car no matter what. Probably would make up a good chunk of the drive time in taxi time at IND vs the others.
 
I’ve never landed there but they do service GA. 100ll is very spendy there. Not sure on landing fees. As previously mentioned, there are other options that are much easier and cheaper. 2R2 has the cheapest fuel in the area at $4.25 for 100ll and $4.00 for mogas (was just there a few days ago). Lots of other options that might be closer to your destination.
 
Yeah, unless you want to go somewhere to the Southwest of Indy, I can't imagine that KIND is really the most convenient place to land. If you are going downtown, EYE or Greenwood are as short or shorter of a car ride.

Millionair has a nice FBO facility at KIND, and they were good to deal with when I needed to store the burned up remains of a biz-jet. Never used them for anything else though. KIND ATC is really easy to work with, and will usually let you fly practice approaches, although I personally never stopped. But, if you don't mind the higher fuel prices, KIND is certainly very doable as a GA piston aircraft.
 
What about Signature is worse than fire?

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/march/14/part-13-complaints-moving-forward

You will usually run across people at the FBO that are very nice. However, IMHO Signature, the company, is an unscrupulous, price gouging, wart on aviation... I've dealt with them as both a pilot visiting their facilities (recently) and as a competing FBO at Teterboro airport. I used to have to send my Line Service guys over to their ramp to retrieve Corporate aircraft that were scheduled to our facility with limos and catering waiting because they hi-jacked the aircraft (marshalled them to their ramp) causing great inconvenience to my customers. It was SOP for them... I get mad just thinking about it, and that was 30 years ago!
 
My daughter goes to school at IUPUI downtown.
I always fly into EYE.
The FBO takes good care of you if you call ahead.
 
IND is easy, not sure about the fees, but I would go to EYE if I were you. No mixing with airliners, and the FBO is top notch. The restaurant across the street is excellent as well. Ricks Boatyard Cafe
 
One of my future x-countries will be to EYE to eat at Rick's. No idea about IND. I would be a little worried about all the airliners, but I think the land GA on another runway (at least that is what it looked like out the side of the last commercial plane I took out of there).
 
I'm looking to travel to Indianapolis (IND) from Nashville (JWN). Based on where I'm staying, KIND is the most convenient. Is it reasonable to fly into the big airport there? I'll be in a SR20 and I'm instrument rated. Any insights on costs for landing fees and overnight parking. It looks the Millionaire and Signature are my two choices.

Keep in mind the Big10 Football championship game is 12/1.
 
I flew a da20 from Atlanta to IND as a low time private pilot and went to millionair. I had a good experience and it was really an easy airport to get in and out of.
 
I had a great experience at EYE as well.
 
I flew a da20 from Atlanta to IND as a low time private pilot and went to millionair. I had a good experience and it was really an easy airport to get in and out of.

Did they let you borrow the Jaguar courtesy car?
 
CALL whichever FBO you are considering ahead of time and get the real costs for their landing fees, tie-down, hangar, fuel costs/credits, ground transportation, etc., whatever you are looking for... That way, there will be no surprises.

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CALL whichever FBO you are considering ahead of time and get the real costs for their landing fees, tie-down, hangar, fuel costs/credits, ground transportation, etc., whatever you are looking for... That way, there will be no surprises.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Good advice; email is even better so you have it in writing. But isn’t it sad that you have to CALL in this day and age and can’t find the information online? Why is it that the FBO industry opposes transparency so much? What other transaction do you face where you have to call to find out what it will cost to pull up in front of a business?
 
Good advice; email is even better so you have it in writing. But isn’t it sad that you have to CALL in this day and age and can’t find the information online? Why is it that the FBO industry opposes transparency so much? What other transaction do you face where you have to call to find out what it will cost to pull up in front of a business?

Oh brother. We went 14 rounds about this question in another thread a couple months back. Basically, they do it because they can, and in certain locations it is done to dissuade our demographic from attending outright, since the Jet-A fuel sales are their market driver. Indeed, not a friendly environment to the recreational flyer who isn't motivated by boutique pricing.
 
Both Mllionaire and Signature love charging “ Event Fees” here in Indy, so watch for that, with the Big Ten in town this weekend. I second EYE if you are on the west side, but I would suggest MQJ if you are going downtown. Good FBO, 2 runways, and 15-20 minutes from ramp to downtown.
 
Basically, they do it because they can,...and in certain locations it is done to dissuade our demographic....

And almost always on ramps built with federal tax dollars. Seems like the folks who paid for the place ought to be able to stop by now and then and at least know what the price will be for showing up without jumping through a lot of hoops.
 
Here's how this ended up:

We filed to KEYE however as we got closer we ended up diverting to KIND due to low ceilings and better wind/runway alignment. Our SR22 didn't have WAAS so we preferred the ILS and big airport lighting to a non-precision approach with a strong crosswind.
ATC was great although twice they asked the reason for the diversion.

Approach asked us to maintain best forward speed as long as possible. We were cleared to land right after we got established and a jet behind us on the same ILS was also cleared to land. I found that a bit uncomfortable but it all worked out fine. We popped out at 600 AGL.

We ended up going to Signature. They waived the "handling fee" with a 16-gallon fuel purchase and there was a $0.50/gal weekend discount. The cost for overnight was $26 and no other fees were charged. These prices seemed quite reasonable, considering.
They weren't friendly or helpful, however, they weren't unfriendly either. They did make us park FAR from the front door. It felt like getting the worst seat in a restaurant. I called them from the hotel in the morning to let them know we were on our way and got a "yeah...so" kind of response. The only hiccup was they wanted to see our company ID to let us on the ramp. When I explained I don't have a company, a supervisor had to get involved.

As far as the home trip, we filed: NO DP. We were given direct destination immediately from departure. Easy as it gets.

That's about it. Great trip to Indy and I've put KEYE and Rick's on my list of places to visit in the future. As suggested above, there are better places than KIND for a prop plane but it's certainly an option when you need it.
 
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