1st post. flying from South Dakota to KRAL

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chevy72402

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Chevy72402
So after getting my ticket to fly in January I am taking my family on our first cross country long distance flight. we are planning on flying into KRAL. Any thing special (besides NOTAMS) that the locals have experience with? Any landing fees I should be aware of or is there a better FBO around. I've read the FBO reviews on FF and it sounds like Carlos is the guy to see there.

We are going to be renting a vehicle while we are there and do the whole Disneyland, and sightseeing trip throughout California for around 10 days (weather permitting)
 
No fees at KRAL. Nothing special about landing there, the controllers have been great when I go into there.
 
That's quite the trip! Congratulations!

Take lots of pictures, keep a journal of the flights with weather briefings and actual. It will be a great learning experience. We went from WV to Yellowstone a year and two months after my PPL checkride. It counted as three vacations in one--three days flight seeing and sightseeing headed west, five days in the Park, and three more days slowly going home.

Be careful of the mountains, though, those are some serious hills.

But boy, it will be fun! So many new sights, new places, new airports. Borrow a car everywhere and ride into town to eat. Look around, see the local sights. Stay the night if it looks like a fun or interesting place. We stayed one night next to a Russell Stover outlet, my wife was in heaven, because the sky was ugly ahead and we wanted to check it on real radar.
 
Thanks for the advice, during my checkout on the 210 we flew into KVEL and got some mountain flying experience (rather mountain avoidance at 12,500) My wife is insisting that we make use of my ticket and of the plane. We'll see how the weather pans out as the last few trips we had planned didn't pan out after the weather came in. Nothing pressing on either side of the trip at this point and my most enjoyable vacations have been unplanned and "on the fly" It'll be an experience for sure.
 
Luvrv8 said:
No fees at KRAL. Nothing special about landing there, the controllers have been great when I go into there.
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Well there is one thing.

Don't do anything crazy, there happens to be a FSDO on the airport.


There is a nice little American style diner at the main terminal building next to said FSDO.
 
Nice little airport, the airport manager is a good friend of mine.
 
James331 said:
Well there is one thing.

Don't do anything crazy, there happens to be a FSDO on the airport.


There is a nice little American style diner at the main terminal building next to said FSDO.
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I have a hangar at RAL. You'd be amazed what it takes to get the FSDO out of their chairs.

$5 overnight for transient parking. Only one FBO, they're a good one.

Really a low-drama/low-key airport without the TSA Prison fence treatment.

CNO is much larger with fuller-service FBOs, very excellent museums, and some sections have the prison fence -- other parts you can just walk through at your leisure.

For driving to Disneyland, it's about a wash. There might be a slight edge to CNO, but it'd be less than 10 minutes.

I assume you have family or something in RAL, and didn't choose RAL to hide from our big scawwwy airspace. If you are hiding from our big scary airspace, smack yourself, get flight following, and go to KFUL to get to disneyland. :)

$0.02

- Mike
 
Pay attention on the way down if you're planning the Owens Valley over Bishop or Mammoth. If we have a big Santa Ana condition or high pressure ridge build in, and the winds get gusty you can get a real roller coaster ride in that valley. I mean some stuff that will stand your hair on end. If its calm no problemo........
 
Personally I'd rather fly to Big Bear, riverside is kinda a dump, CNO isn't too bad, lots of cool GA stuff, but Big Bear would probably be a much nicer destination, also normally low fuel prices, decent Chinese food and a nice bar righ on the field, easy walk to down town, less knuckle heads, better scenery.
 
I'm from Wood SD. Airplane is hangered at Gregory SD. Yes the airspace over that way is daunting to look at as we have very limited controlled airspace here in SD and the great plains region. I have spoken with the FBO in Riverside and they have arranged to get my rental SUV to the airport for us.
The family that we do have in California is actually up around the San Fransisco area. We'll drive up to Yosemite and meander over towards the SF later in the week. Kids have no idea what is going on yet, just that we are going flying tomorrow.

Thank you all for the advice and after we hit the halfway point (KVEL or Vernal, Utah) we will pick up flight following to go through Vegas airspace as well as next to the restricted airspace around there. Never had Flight Following yet so it will be an adventure as well as I'd rather have another set of eyes out there for us.
 
I have a hangar at KRAL also. So I'm biased. But I've also had my planes at KFUL and Kcno.
Goto Kcno to visit the museums.
Goto KFUL to be close to Disneyland. They have transient parking at the base of the tower. And rental cars are available from either fbo

Cno or ral will have cheaper fuel.
Cno hard to get fbo service. Lots of transient parking

KRAL you can park at riverside air service, but they don't have tie downs. Just park you. In front of the terminal is lots of transient parking. You can get a car delivered.

Enjoy the trip.
Between vegas and SoCal you will loose radar contact before baker unless you fly ifr altitudes of over 10k feet. But it's only for a few miles and they will usually pick you back up for ff without dropping you.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Quite a hike from Wood to Gregory.

Not to hijack but... We have a family reunion every year in Fairfax. I think I'm going to fly this year, but I can't decide if I should fly into Gregory or Wagner. I've never flown into either. Which do you prefer?
 
About an hour and a half drive from Wood to Gregory. I prefer Gregory but have landed in Wagner during training. Mike klarenbeek is the airport manager at 9d1 ( Gregory) and is a great guy.


Made it to Vernal. Next stop riverside
 
If your main mission is Disneyland, then come straight into Fullerton. AFI is a great FBO, they'll probably park you free for a night, maybe more if you get fuel. Don't subject yourself to traffic on the 91 Freeway, it is awful most of the day.

SoCal Approach are very friendly controllers. Just come through the Cajon Pass, they may ask you to stay high until south of Ontario. If you want to descend earlier, cut south to PDZ VOR and then you can descend at your leisure. Either use GPS or tune in the LOC at Fullerton to find the runway, and you'll get a straight-in final to 24 (90% of the time) from 10 miles out, or just a jog to the north for a left pattern to runway 6.

Getting out of FUL is easy, either just fly back east the way you came in, or fly north below the Class B and above El Monte (~3,000') and you're free to go on your merry way. Get flight following though, it is worth it.
 
chevy72402 said:
I'm from Wood SD. Airplane is hangered at Gregory SD.
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Well Howdy, neighbor! :) I grew up in Custer but worked all over the state building powerline (Mission, Winner, Gregory closest to you) and chasing deer, turkeys and pheasants. My aunt grew up in Gregory ... part of the Kayle family.
 
gkainz said:
Well Howdy, neighbor! :) I grew up in Custer but worked all over the state building powerline (Mission, Winner, Gregory closest to you) and chasing deer, turkeys and pheasants. My aunt grew up in Gregory ... part of the Kayle family.
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I have family from those parts. Geddes, Fairfax, Yankton, Beresford, and Alcester. Others in Spearfish and Sioux Falls. I was born in Brookings but live in Kansas now. Always enjoy getting back up North to God's country...
 
I went to SDSU in Brookings back in the dark ages.
 
Greg, Judy Kayl was one of my mom's best friends growing up and she still stays in contact with her.
 
SD is an interesting place in that the population is low enough you can always find some extended family somewhere, if your family has ever lived there.

All sorts of shirttail relations in and around Hand County. But the young folk move away and the old folk are dying off at a pretty good clip now...
 
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