PDK's Master Plan

wayne

wayne

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Gone West
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wayne
I got an email today about it.

The first of five workshops is this Thursday, November 15 from 6:00 pm to - 8:00 pm at:

Chamblee Community Building
3496 Keswick Drive, Chamblee 30341​

Learn more about the Master Plan for DeKalb Peachtree Airport here.

There is a survey about PDK on that site as well.
 
I know their masterplan yesterday was to close and make a lot of traffic go to county. Its busy with some kind of event and I couldn't be happier that signature is losing out on revenue at PDK.
 
The airport is preparing for the Superbowl. In addition to installing an EMAS system, they are de-rubberizing the runways and re-painting all runways and taxiways. The EMAS project has shortened the useable length of the longest runway and is forcing some jets to go to LZU, FTY, or RYY. The airport is not closed. It amazes me how many pilots don't read the NOTAMs. I've heard several on frequency coming in only to turn away once they find out there is only 4,000' available on 3R/21L.
 
Super bowl is going to kill GA for the week it’s on. Both VFR and IFR will require reserved slots for several days before and after the event.
 
Flocker said:
The airport is preparing for the Superbowl. In addition to installing an EMAS system, they are de-rubberizing the runways and re-painting all runways and taxiways. The EMAS project has shortened the useable length of the longest runway and is forcing some jets to go to LZU, FTY, or RYY. The airport is not closed. It amazes me how many pilots don't read the NOTAMs. I've heard several on frequency coming in only to turn away once they find out there is only 4,000' available on 3R/21L.
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They lost a lot of business the last couple days because gulfstreams and globals don't like shorter runways. Not that they couldn't do it , but it makes it interesting getting out. Hill at Fulton was a very busy FBO today.
 
No doubt the current construction has been a pain. They have actually been pretty accommodating in some respects and have coordinated with closures of the long runway at FTY. There have also been some major communication failures as well. You can’t blame it all on pilots not checking notams because there have been last minute changes as to what is going to be open or closed. There was a Challenger stuck there because they didn’t put the notam out until the morning of.
 
Now for a more important PDK Master Plan. There’s obviously a bunch of us on here, why haven’t we met up for a beer?
 
Dave Theisen said:
Now for a more important PDK Master Plan. There’s obviously a bunch of us on here, why haven’t we met up for a beer?
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Research has shown that the odds of randomly meeting up for beers are roughly the same as if you had started a thread about meeting up for beers.
 
Flocker said:
The airport is preparing for the Superbowl. In addition to installing an EMAS system, they are de-rubberizing the runways and re-painting all runways and taxiways. The EMAS project has shortened the useable length of the longest runway and is forcing some jets to go to LZU, FTY, or RYY. The airport is not closed. It amazes me how many pilots don't read the NOTAMs. I've heard several on frequency coming in only to turn away once they find out there is only 4,000' available on 3R/21L.
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But that's not master plan stuff. That's just normal maintenance.
 
Stopped in there on my way to OSH. Very friendly people and service, hope it doesn't get ruined by expansion plans. They could use more tie downs though, at least once a year. They offered free hotdogs and had cheap gas so it became a packed house of people waiting out the weather headed to OSH.
 
Grum.Man said:
Stopped in there on my way to OSH. Very friendly people and service, hope it doesn't get ruined by expansion plans. They could use more tie downs though, at least once a year. They offered free hotdogs and had cheap gas so it became a packed house of people waiting out the weather headed to OSH.
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Are you sure you are thinking of the right place? It’s not quite “on your way” to OSH and I don’t think ANYONE has ever used PDK an cheap gas in the same post. :)
 
Grum.Man said:
Stopped in there on my way to OSH. Very friendly people and service, hope it doesn't get ruined by expansion plans. They could use more tie downs though, at least once a year. They offered free hotdogs and had cheap gas so it became a packed house of people waiting out the weather headed to OSH.
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Not much in the way of room around it now. They might be able to build a few more hangars here and there, and refresh things, but that's about it. Runway 16-34 could definitely use repaving. I'd love to see more T-hangars on the east side where the east end of 9-27 used to be since there's a multi-year waiting list for T-hangar space. I'm not holding my breath for that though.

I wish FTY would build T-hangars where their short 9-27 runway was. That would have been great for the Atlanta area. That area is very industrial, so less neighborhoods to complain about "those noisy airplanes".
 
wayne said:
Not much in the way of room around it now. They might be able to build a few more hangars here and there, and refresh things, but that's about it. Runway 16-34 could definitely use repaving. I'd love to see more T-hangars on the east side where the east end of 9-27 used to be since there's a multi-year waiting list for T-hangar space. I'm not holding my breath for that though.

I wish FTY would build T-hangars where their short 9-27 runway was. That would have been great for the Atlanta area. That area is very industrial, so less neighborhoods to complain about "those noisy airplanes".
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T-hangars are tough from an ROI standpoint. Some airports will build them and own them. Some give a ground lease to a private company (often an FBO) to build the hangars on. Some airports do it as condo development. Not sure how PDK manages them. One of the big problems comes from people who put their name on wait lists (often at multiple airports) but when a hangar opens up they're not interested. Of if they are they balk at the price necessary to have something new. That dynamic makes it hard to build a reliable business case in favor of developing additional T-hangar banks.

All I can say is, participate in the master plan process and make your feelings known. Go to the public things and talk to the planners. Put in comments on the website. You want to get to the Michael Baker folks, not the airport folks. The consultants are the ones who calculate the facility requirements and come up with the alternatives
 
Ken Ibold said:
One of the big problems comes from people who put their name on wait lists (often at multiple airports) but when a hangar opens up they're not interested. Of if they are they balk at the price necessary to have something new. That dynamic makes it hard to build a reliable business case in favor of developing additional T-hangar banks.
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Yep, that can be a problem. I doubt it's much of a problem at PDK though. They built a bunch of new T-hangars after closing 9-27 and they were all immediately filled and there's still a waiting list. Plan for X number and build in phases. If you finish a phase and they aren't all rented, hold off on the following phases. Now, there still could be an ROI issue, but they are getting in the $450-500/month range for them, so not as much an issue as in places where hangar rent is cheaper.
 
That event was rather uneventful. o_O

Two of the three didn't know much about planes or airports. The third made up for it though. He's an instrument rated private pilot, but not instrument current and only flies occasionally.

He didn't like the T-hangars on the east side as fuel is on the other side. Easy, move the self-serve over there. :D Thought it might be hard to put in a drive way up to the airport level, but then said maybe an aviation museum over there. I had to point out it would be no easier to put in a drive for the museum either.

Two people from Epps were there. One was a bit worked up that the new "west hangars" rent for $100-150 / month less than their smaller/older (1970's) T-hangars. Sorry, but the hangars at LZU are about $200/month less than the "west hangars". There's also an 80+ person/10+ year wait list for T-hangars. That seems like a lot of demand to me.

I'm not holding my breath though. :(

They had some info on the airport, including information about runway 13/34. :rolleyes: And about planes too, including turbo props, with a picture of a Beech Baron. o_O
 
FormerHangie said:
I can't think PDK can be expanded, it's completely surrounded by development.
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I've never heard a good reason though why 21R/3L couldn't be lengthened other than cost. What's going on now shows a good reason why it would be helpful to have that runway longer than 3750'.
 
Thracer said:
I've never heard a good reason though why 21R/3L couldn't be lengthened other than cost. What's going on now shows a good reason why it would be helpful to have that runway longer than 3750'.
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There is a very loud group of NIMBYS who protest everything about PDK. I'm sure they are a factor.
 
PDK isn't fun for us when it is wet in the Challenger, and there is only one ILS. Thankfully we don't go there often, and FTY is not far out of the way for our pax.
 
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