tiny airports.
 

i was in Los Angeles this weekend.

living in the boonies like i do means getting to an airport is a friggen hassle..to Peru, we took $80 worth of airport shuttles to/fro..for about 2 hours each way. (to SF)

this weekend. we both decided to fly out from a local regional airport. the one in Sonoma County..

what a blast! sure our flight out was delayed 3 hours and i already parked the car..(shame on me for not checking flight status). but there was a restaurant there with decent food, great coffee, all policed by a squadron of lululemon wearing waitresses.

our plane was prop driven.and took off like a regular plane. it served free beer and wine. 1.5 hours we were in LA.

coming home..i had to check my duffle because it held a new kitchen knife..(big surprise). the bag was in front of my face on the tiniest conveyor belt (it was maybe 25 feet of belt, and it moved fast!) in about 4 minutes..since the plane was right there on the other side of the wall.

oh, security was more of an interview..and a quick scan. haha..there were six people in line in front of me. fast. easy.

i like tiny airports. flights are more expensive tho..and my airport goes to very few places.

the LA airport was insane. it is a city!

coming home..i got the royal treatment at TSA counter. dude searched my junk. (those are not pillows!)

and i think we should all get it together at baggage claim. it is NOT neccesary to crowd the conveyor belt. hang back..see the bags from afar..go up get it. leave. it sucks if you have to run the gauntlet to grab a bag.

When you mentioned small airports, I thought of a recent trip. No services, no ground crew and we had to push the plane a few feet because the front tire was in a shallow hole.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534780438.jpg

Appleton, WI airport is small and very pleasant. I think I had my baggage and was sitting in the rental car about 10 minutes after the plane landed.

That lil thing flew into LAX?

Our international airport is a mass of people 24/7. You description of a city is dead on. We were in Calgary a couple weeks ago. Their airport was so nice, no crowds, no lines in restaurants and more importantly, there are seats all over the place with few people. You are luck if you fine standing room for three hours as you wait for the flight.

Our TSA agents like to yell and have no freaking manners. I understand their job is stressful but that's not the way to ask folks. They were literally yelling and pointing."you, right there, right now". This old Indian couple in front of us spoke no english and they started to yell at them at a distance and they had no idea what to do when they were asked to remove their shoes. The yelling started again with hands and fingers weaving again. They must missed the memo that this is an international airport and there are folks that speak no english visiting? Our Canadian counterpart was just too pleasant to deal with and I made sure to let em' know. A simple smile goes a long way

Next time you come down this way if you have extra time, give me a shout, beer and lunch on me.

We were at a small airport month before last to take sail plane rides. Nothing else going on except for an Air Force Academy girl doing take offs and landings with a glider to build her number count. I don't think they have anything close to scheduled flights. It was a cool place to be.

Had a pic but it doesn't seem to upload.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534783362.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534783479.jpg

Landing at Hilton Head.

Our airport at Charleston is great. Very small compared to Atlanta, which you have to connect through. Lines at the counter and TSA are short and quick.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534786324.JPG

Lake Placid, NY

How about Chandler, OK.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...464e89bb0e.jpg

Actually a nice place.

I do not plan on major airports again if I can help it, will take a boat.

This type of rigor on a regular basis cannot be good for the free soul.

In time, it will turn some from people into cattle.

Years ago (b4 America West -> US Airways -> American) I was a frequent flier to BWI/DC area. I flew AW out of Palomar Airport, Dash 8 turbo prop to PHX, and on to East coast. Back then long term parking was free, and I could arrive 45 minutes before the flight and make it easy to the plane. PHX was dead reliable to fly in/out of and Palomar was a short 10 minute drive from home. Perfect situation.

I do everything I can to avoid LAX.

Many years ago i was flying to Knoxville Tenn.
I could have flown direct out of LAX but instead I booked a connecting flight out of OC. it was worth it as long as I didn't have to set foot anywhere near LAX.
This is what I posted about that flight after I got home:

As a guy who flies little airplanes, any airport with baggage claim and rental cars is a "big" airport. And to be avoided.

LAX is unbelieberably bad right now with the construction.

Flew in a puddle jumper, Swearingen Metroliner, from Fargo, ND to Minneapolis a hundred years ago.
As I recall, one seat on either side of the aisle. I liked it...sat behind the 2 man crew and listened and watched.

small airports are usually fantastic.

I love my local airport name...Piedmont Triad INTERNATIONAL Airport (GSO)....your gate is the one with a few dozen people, and your baggage claim is the one running....eventually ;).

I flew into Sheridan WY a few years back to meet my then girlfriend who was down there for an Artist residence. She had driven my car down. I spent a lot of time at that airport because my bags got so screwed up coming out of Denver. They maybe handle a few dozen commercial flights a day down there, maybe less actually. It was kind of comical watching the TSA drones do their thing. There would be 10 of them to board a flight of 10 to 20. They'd work for 20 minutes, then go sit in a conference room for an hour + between flights, then come filing out again for the next one. It was like watching a crew of street repair guys. 8 people standing around watching a couple of guys fill a pothole.

Bob Hope/ Burbank Airport is my choice to fly out of.

LAX is like a 3rd world country. Appalling that one of our nation’s biggest and most iconic cities has such a dump of an airport.

We have a whopping 14 gates at ICT, one of the few things I like about Wichita. Of course the flights are at least double the price of most major airports.....

Neal:
Are you saying I could be *stuck* in Wichita?

Del:
I'm saying you *are* stuck in Wichita.

I like Branson, MO.....Privately owned/operated and only 4 gates....Have a drink at Famous Dave's BBQ while waiting....

Lol, super positive depiction of our fine city in that movie.

Not sure if we qualify as 'small' here in Columbus, OH, but I love our airport (CMH).

Favorite small airport? Burbank, CA. Love it.

I grew up around small airports and liked it a lot. Everybody knew everybody and if you needed a ride to ONT or LAX some off-duty airline pilot might give you a ride in his Twin Beech if you covered fuel costs. We used to have lunch with guys like Artie Scholl and Clay Lacy.

My Dad built a house and hanger on the taxiway at Pine Mountain Lake airport and lived there for 10 years tinkering with aircraft. I can still see his house in this pic, now surrounded by all the newer high $$ mega mansions.

https://www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov/375/Pine-Mountain-Lake-Airport

I flew out of Wichita Falls once... I thought my AM flight was actually a PM flight.
12 hours in the lounge was nice. that and all the boot techies from the afb.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534852730.jpg

No fence, no security, no TSA

Many years ago, Eastern Airlines (remember them?) flew a puddle jumper into the airport in Colquitt County, Georgia. The gummint paid Eastern a stipend of about $500K per year to serve this area. At one point, I flew from Atlanta to Moultrie, was the only passenger on the plane (along with a bag of mail) on a direct flight and they lost my luggage! Now that has got to be a record! They did find the suitcase, flew it to Albany, Ga the next day and had a taxi drive it 50 miles to the Moultrie airport. The cost of my ticket was $99! I have often wondered how much they lost of that flight?

One of my pet peeves .. They should put a TSA agent to good use patrolling the conveyor perimeter with a cattle prod.

the surrounding areas too. going to the rental car place on the shuttle. we passed huge tracts of homes just boarded up..streets blocked by k-rail. it was like a third world country.

and apparently there was a huge traffic jam, because google maps took us thru the neighborHOOD with a emphasise on hood. i think we went thru Compton. my wife was "oh, that house would be cute fixed up..take the bars off the windows..............."

i was.."honey, quit pointing at the homes..eyes forward..lock the doors".

:D i was ready to drop the shifter of the Nissan Versa into "3" and utilize all 90hp to escape at a moments notice.

Several years ago i needed to fly to Oakland for a business emergency. As in don't pack, don't go home, just get to the closest airport and get in the air.

the closest airport was Long Beach. I parked and walked the 200 feet to the terminal.

I waited in line for a minute or two to get through security and get my boarding pass.

The coolest part was when the airport employee asked us all to gather around, and led us out onto the tarmac where we climbed the stairs to get on the plane.
I had no idea planes had stairs in the back of the plane!

It was totally cool in a retro-nostalgic way.

Vash, Vash, Vash... all the locals know to avoid LAX like the plague, our favorite is Long Beach if there is anyway to fly in and out of there it is our #1 choice. We even drive the John Wayne in the OC to avoid LAX. I have also heard good thing about Burbank but we would have to drive through he11.. I'm mean downtown L.A. to get there.

RE:Small airport drove a car from L.A. to Brookings OR. closest airport was Crescent City, there was a storm but that didn't stop the puddle jumper from taking off directly over the ocean. I remember looking out at the huge waves and whitcaps and thinking "if we go down we are all going to die."
Crescent city airport is so small they didn't have security, so we flew down to Eureka, got off the plane, went through security, and got back on the plane.

Then there is Medford OR "International" airport... even the locals roll there eyes when they say "international"... if you get there too early or late you better not need to check in... because there is nobody at the check in counters.

My former boss was telling me a story of his first airline flight ever that was back in the 1930s. It was from Oklahoma City to Houston. He said the ticket agent loaded his luggage onto the cart. The same guy took all the tickets, pushed the luggage cart to the airplane and loaded the luggage. He then went inside and changed uniforms, and came out and went to the cockpit and flew the airplane to his Houston. "Back in the good ol days"

I always enjoyed navigating around LAX via Waze, which leads you onto neighborhood streets when there is interstate traffic (i.e. always). Fun seeing streets that you've heard in rap songs.:D

there are some very scenic neighborhoods along the 105 freeway ...... :eek:

Who cares about a bus tour of celebrity homes, how about a bus tour of the LA ghetto? Explore scenic locales from rap music, movies, and Boyz N The Hood.

That should be part of an organized LA tour. Head east on the 105 and get off in Watts or South Central around sundown on a Fri night. Then drive slowly through and watch the show. Just don't become part of the show.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, the lovely neighborhood you are referring to is Inglewood home of our new multi-billion dollar Rams stadium complex!

PSA: Better to cut north/south on Sepulveda Blvd/Hwy 1 then cut east to the freeway through Playa Vista (north) or El Segundo (south)

Saba. Supposed to be the shortest international runway in the world. Landed there a few times. The pilots make it look easy.