Best suburban Philadelphia airport

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pipernd

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Mike
in the last 11 mos I've jumped back into aviation after a decade long hiatus culminating in my purchase of my Piper Lance in June. I've been hangaring the Lance at KPNE bc my buddy/CFII is a full time corporate pilot who is based out of there. I live in Wayne PA so it's a good 45-50 min drive for me. Also, while KPNE has great services on site, it's a corporate field. I grew up flying out of my local airport (KN30) in northeastern PA. Great restaurant, enough on field services and, most importantly to me, a real familial feel.

So my question is, is there anywhere like that in the Philly suburbs? Wings? Brandywine? Either Pottstown airports? Another consideration other than proximity is that I want to hangar my plane. Thanks in advance.
 
I use to live in Wayne PA and did my flight training at PTW. It was still a 30+ minute drive and I'm guessing traffic hasn't improved in the past 15 years. I think hangar availability may be a substantial factor - I'd suggest checking them all out and seeing about hangar availability. Guessing Wings would be closest to you but probably doesnt have hangars available. It's a pretty tight little airport for parking. Brandywine might have better availability but a bit farther. Wings has slightly better instrument approach (300 ft LPV) which may matter for you.
 
Pottstown Heritage field is a nice airport and really easy to find since you can see the cooling towers from far away. Not too busy and outside of Phila airspace. Doylestown is also a good airport but don't know about hangar availability. Wings is really busy with very active flight school.
 
I used to fly a plane based out of wings. At the time it was great. The FBO is under new management though so I'm not sure my endorsement is still valid. I have heard rumors the new management are a bunch of $$ grabbing *******s but can not say this is true from personal experience. I can say that 10 years ago it was awesome place.
 
PTW has a good community and affordable hangars. Ned is a great mechanic too (at ptw). Based at wings now and they try to offer good service and charge you for it. If you don't need a hangar they are a good option, quick drive from wayne.
 
Mike5250 said:
PTW has a good community and affordable hangars. Ned is a great mechanic too (at ptw). Based at wings now and they try to offer good service and charge you for it. If you don't need a hangar they are a good option, quick drive from wayne.
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Does PTW have hangars? The airport manager at Wings tells me there's a 3 year wait for hangar space at Wings and it's >$1000/mo. Brandywine has space but you need to buy in at $90k "for the air inside the hangar" as has been explained to me. I'm paying <$500/mo at PNE.
 
pipernd said:
Does PTW have hangars? The airport manager at Wings tells me there's a 3 year wait for hangar space at Wings and it's >$1000/mo. Brandywine has space but you need to buy in at $90k "for the air inside the hangar" as has been explained to me. I'm paying <$500/mo at PNE.
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Geez, might as well drive an extra 20 minutes.
 
Gucci Pilot said:
Geez, might as well drive an extra 20 minutes.
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Understood but that defeats my quest for a familial airport environment. Some of my favorite childhood memories were eating breakfast while watching planes take off and land at Cherry Ridge (N30)....I love that scene. I just can't seem to find it within 45 mins or so of my house!

Also, how much do people here pay for a t-hangar in the suburbs of a large metro area like Philadelphia?
 
KMQS? Don't know about hangar availability. In general that's a big problem with any of the Philly area airports.
 
i thought about chester county too. it's probably 30-35 mins west of me on a good day but it seems to have a nice set up. I think I'm going to check it out. I wasn't aware until recently that they fly light business jets out of there. . .
 
pipernd said:
i thought about chester county too. it's probably 30-35 mins west of me on a good day but it seems to have a nice set up. I think I'm going to check it out. I wasn't aware until recently that they fly light business jets out of there. . .
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Chester county sounds like your best bet. We base our plane there in the winter. Fuel is much cheaper at N57 if you don't mind making a quick stop and want to save a few bucks. Brandywine is nice as well, but can be a little sleepy besides the flight training ops...and no restaurant there.
 
Yeah....I'm narrowing in on Pottstown Heritage (close, relatively cheap but not much going on), Brandywine (close, clean/nice, not cheap but not awful if you can find someone who's renting out their hangar), Chester County (little cheaper than KPNE, a little closer but has a restaurant on field), and Wings (the closest of all, very clean/nice/active but expensive as far as I understand)

I haven't looked north at Quakertown but that actually closer to me than KPNE. If I can't make something work at one of the aforementioned bases I may look there.
 
pipernd said:
Does PTW have hangars? The airport manager at Wings tells me there's a 3 year wait for hangar space at Wings and it's >$1000/mo. Brandywine has space but you need to buy in at $90k "for the air inside the hangar" as has been explained to me. I'm paying <$500/mo at PNE.
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Yeah. Pm me and i'll get there number. Don't quote me but I think they are under $400.
 
pipernd said:
I haven't looked north at Quakertown but that actually closer to me than KPNE. If I can't make something work at one of the aforementioned bases I may look there.
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There's a wait-list but it seems to move relatively quickly. It's a sleepy airport generally, but has an active pilot association.
 
paflyer said:
At Brandywine?
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Pottstown. Brandywine is about $500/mo if you can find someone renting their hangar. Otherwise, you need to purchase airport shares. 2 shares = 1 T-hangar = $85k-$100k
 
paflyer said:
There's a wait-list but it seems to move relatively quickly. It's a sleepy airport generally, but has an active pilot association.
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At quakertown? I took my check ride there in 1989. Is there a restaurant there?
 
Looking for the best field in philly or nyc

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pipernd said:
... Chester County (little cheaper than KPNE, a little closer but has a restaurant on field)...
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I know this doesn't get you closer to a complete solution, but if you're looking for a Cherry Ridge type restaurant experience where you can watch the airplanes take off and land while you eat, I don't think you will find it at Chester County's restaurant. It is located about 20 feet below runway level in a way that you have just about no sight lines to the departure/touch down zone at either end of the runway. You can see airplanes taxiing to the ramp, and if they land long maybe see the upper half roll by on the runway. But that's about it.
 
pipernd said:
At quakertown? I took my check ride there in 1989. Is there a restaurant there?
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As said, no restaurant. Do have outside tie-downs available, not sure of the hangar situation. A call to the Bucks County Airport Authority (215) 345 1970 will give you the wait list time. Bit of a hike from Wayne, but guess you could do the Blue Route/NE Extention. Good pilots association, we try to do Sunday morning breakfast fly-outs on a regular basis, but we are pretty dis-organized about that, pretty much show up and fly somewhere. Certainly do not have the traffic like Wings, but I kinda like that.
 
Thanks all....I spoke with the folks at PTW that have hangar availability and I'm going to check them out this weekend.

now....who's with me on building a diner off the ramp at PTW?? Seems to be a market need there!!
 
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