Low level helos over Capitol Mall....

[SkyHog]

Just came back from a business trip, and had a connecting flight at KDCA. Neat view of the mall on approach to 19, btw.

After dark, I noticed a flight of 3 helicopters repeatedly circling at very low altitude over the mall in the general direction of the White House (this was on Wednesday night, 5/18).

Is that normal? Also, there was an airport not far from KDCA, probably about 175 or 180 degrees at about 10nm or less. There were two beacons, maybe a few hundred feet apart. What airport was that, and why two beacons?

 

[kkoran]

My guess is the helos were probably HMX-1 (the Marine squadron that fly the President) practicing White House Ops.

Are you sure the two beacons were only a few hundred feet apart? Could you have been looking at VKX and W32?

 

[SkyHog]

My guess is the helos were probably HMX-1 (the Marine squadron that fly the President) practicing White House Ops.

Are you sure the two beacons were only a few hundred feet apart? Could you have been looking at VKX and W32?

That must be it. Why would there be two airports that close together??

 

[TMetzinger]

one of the two was private, once upon a time, I believe.

Now they're both public, but you've got to have a FRZ PIN to get in.

 

[wsuffa]

one of the two was private, once upon a time, I believe.

Now they're both public, but you've got to have a FRZ PIN to get in.

To be specific, they're privately owned but open to the public.

 

[weilke]

That must be it. Why would there be two airports that close together??

Because at one point there were two grumpy old men who owned little airports and wouldn't talk to each other


Sadly, Hyde Field (or Washington Executive as it was called at one point) is going to turn into townhouses the moment the real estate market returns to its normal state of irrational exuberance. The surveyors stakes are alreay strewn all over the place. At one point, there were ambitious plans to extend the runway using some adjacent land and to turn it into a HEF like facility, it is on a nice elevated area with clear approaches in both directions (or back then in all 4 directions, they had a second runway at one point). Somehow, it didn't work out that way. The current owner is just waiting for a chance to develop the place.

VKX on the other side sits in a flood-plain deep in a hole surrounded by real estate development and tall trees. It does have a fiercely independent owner/manager who will keep the place alive.