Venice FL?

[Mike Gagnon]

Does anyone have any recent experience at KVNC? I may be looking to spend a week or two in the area in February so would be interested in any info on current services. I’ll try to write for fees and fuel prices, but if anyone has experience with particular FBOs, your pirep would be appreciated.


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[frfly172]

Venice suffered a good deal of damage from the hurricane Ian. They seem to be up and running . The major FBO is suncoast aviation. They have self serve and a restaurant,with friendly professional staff.

 

[Half Fast]

I was there with my wife a couple of weeks ago and had an excellent time.

The FBO was very helpful and friendly. Lunch at Sharky's ( https://www.sharkysonthepier.com/ ) should be on your agenda, and the restaurant has a free shuttle to and from the airport. The nice lady at the FBO called the shuttle for me and we had a wait of maybe 10 minutes, followed by a half hour wait for a table (good time to walk the pier or beach). The fried shrimp were terrific, very fresh and and in a delicious beer batter.

Venice charges a $10 ramp fee which is waived if you buy 10 gallons of fuel, but it's almost certainly less expensive to buy your fuel elsewhere if you need it. Arcadia is nearby and typically has the cheapest gas in the state. Venice was ~$2/gal more expensive than my home drome KGIF, so 10 gallons there would have been an extra twenty bucks instead of a ten dollar ramp fee. But you can do your own math.

I don't know about overnight parking but there appeared to be plenty of space on the ramp. Give the FBO a call at 941-485-1799.

KVNC has lots of flight training, and there's also some helicopter traffic. Start monitoring CTAF early so you can figure out what's going on. Also be aware of the noise abatement rules (see https://www.venicegov.com/government/airport/flying-friendly and https://www.venicegov.com/home/showpublisheddocument/8016/637509869912830000 ). When we arrived, 23 was in use and people were doing pattern work. I elected to enter on the upwind rather than doing a teadrop over the noise-sensitive area to the south. We departed on 13, so I exited the pattern on my crosswind leg and climbed to 1500' over the Gulf before heading back inland.

There's a nice downtown area with shops and restaurants a few miles away. No shuttle, but Uber will get you there and back. https://www.visitvenicefl.org/

I wish we'd had a little more time, as it was a beautiful day and I would have liked to have flown along the beach for a while. If you decide to do that, get flight following for sure as there may be other sightseers doing the same thing.

Have a good time! Give us a report and let us know how your trip went.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Thanks @Half Fast for taking the time to add info from your experience. We landed in Venice late on the 16th, after dark but before 7:30 when the FBO closes for the day. Taxi to the ramp was a little but of a challenge at night with a few bends and turns, especially with the airport chart I have in FlyQ seeming to be a little inaccurate.

[Photo above taken a bit before landing in Venice - the first of many nice sunsets on this visit. ]

At the ramp, we were greeted by Bruce on a golf car who directed us to parking for the night and transported our bags to the terminal. Very friendly and helpful. He moved our plane to a tie down the next morning.

Tie down fee is $12/night, one night waved with 10gal fuel purchase. That’s pretty reasonable- but it gets better. The rate for longer stays is only $55 per calendar month, so that’s all we’ve been charged so far for January. We will be departing on Friday, so I expect to take 10 gallons to eliminate one of the February night fees. Fuel was $6.09 for SS when I last checked.

We’ve only done a couple of flights since we’ve been here, over to F45 to pick up and drop off a relative for an overnight visit here. Signature there charges $30 a night, plus a $7 infrastructure fee, plus a $37 handling fee (waived with fuel purchase). Their SS was $5.45, so I topped off there to eliminate the handling fee, so just had the $7 fee for each visit there so far.

I’ve used flight following on the way here (from NH), as well as for the couple of flights since we’ve been here. It has worked out pretty well, as usual. Seems particularly good idea given the volume of traffic along the coasts.

One thing that surprised me on my flights to/from F45 last weekend was the wind and limited visibility. With the high pressure over most of the state, from my experience in New England I was expecting blue skies and great visibility but it was very hazy and only 12-15 mile visibility. I’ve got to do some research on this but suspect humidity plays a part (pretty dry air up north, by comparison).

We’re leaving Venice at the end of the week, but will be in FL for a few more days. Hope to get to Key West this weekend, but weather isn’t looking great after Friday so not sure how that will work out. Don’t really want to do it IFR with some route over long stretch of open water, so will have to abort if it doesn’t look like VFR both ways.

Also, the weather all up the east coast looks like it could get messy next week so need to start figuring out when we need to fly back north to avoid that. Not looking forward to returning to the snow & ice after this nice visit here.

Oh - we did meet up with some friends and had lunch at Sharky’s. Food and location were great.


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[Jim K]

I hope you tried the Suncoast Cafe in the terminal. Some of the best food I've ever eaten. Still haven't made it to sharkys as every time we're near Venice we hit the Cafe.

 

[kayoh190]

Great thread - don't have much to add since I haven't been in almost 30 years, but I soloed there the summer of '94. Runway 13!

 

[Hang 4]

One thing that surprised me on my flights to/from F45 last weekend was the wind and limited visibility. With the high pressure over most of the state, from my experience in New England I was expecting blue skies and great visibility but it was very hazy and only 12-15 mile visibility. I’ve got to do some research on this but suspect humidity plays a part (pretty dry air up north, by comparison).

There are a ton of forest fires burning in FL that add a lot of smoke to the air

 

[Mike Gagnon]

There are a ton of forest fires burning in FL that add a lot of smoke to the air

I did see some fires burning around Lake Okeechobee, so presumably that contributed.


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[Half Fast]

Glad you’re having a good trip! Sorry my post was too late to be of help. I didn’t think you were going until Feb. Oh well...

If you decide to stop at KGIF while you’re here let me know and we’ll grab a cup of coffee or something. I’m grounded at the moment, waiting for my mechanic to be available to install new oil and fuel hoses.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

No worries. We originally expected to come down in February, but as we started look at actual plans, January worked better for us so we quickly made some arrangements and departed. Has worked out great so far. Will let you know if meeting up will work out - thanks for the offer!


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[dcotton]

It's the damn sugar cane burning. Instead of cleaning it up, they burn it year after year. Every govenor allows it to ruin the air cause of the big money they get.