Areas with Active GA Community

kontiki

kontiki

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Kontiki
Single old guy here. Been trying to figure out where I might like to retire too. Was just wondering what areas of the country have an active GA community.
 
Alaska.

Hands down.
Largest percentage of pilots in the population, by a huuuuge margin.
GA is woven into the fabric of life here in a way you don't find many other places.

...Unless you have any other retirement criteria? Y'know, like weather? Proximity to family and ease of travel? Weather? Nearest Trader Joes? Weather?...
 
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Florida is probably the largest older active pilots, for obvious reasons…
 
Avoid Florida. Gators will eat your dog and mosquitoes will eat you. Much too crowded, too. And I won’t even mention the debilitating heat. Terrible place for retirement.

And it’s awful for general aviation. Aside from a small airport every 10 miles, more lakes and seaplane bases than you can count, nearby destinations like the Keys and the Bahamas, being home to Piper and a few seaplane manufacturers, several warbird museums, year-round flyable weather, and hosting Sun-n-Fun every spring, Florida has nothing to offer the aviation enthusiast.

Did I mention that it’s too crowded here?

Maybe you should consider either southern North Dakota or northern South Dakota, depending on which climate you prefer.
 
NY is great, except for the taxes, random regulations, cost of living, taxes, and according to at least one guy the worst flying weather in the world.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Texas has massive GA communities but there is the whole Texas part that is kind of a turn off
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The nice thing about Texas is its geography is so diverse there's kinda something for everyone. I have no desire to live in most of it but have to admit the hill country around Kerrville up towards San Saba is awful pretty but my Mom grew up there and I've spent some time there and grew to like it.

TN seems to be a pretty active area.
 
I think there's active ga communities near pretty well any population center. TX and FL seem to have the highest concentrations. Hard to find a hangar in Florida, and between the storms, congestion, and salt air, it's not my favorite place to fly. I'd suggest finding a climate you like, then scoping out the airports in the area to see where there's hangar space and maybe an active EAA chapter of that's your thing.
 
Depends on what type of aviation community you're after?

Are you like most old guys in EAA chapters that no longer fly, or go outside and are just waiting around to die? - anywhere is fine
Do you fly backcountry? - Montana/Idaho/Alaska
Seaplane? - N. Minnesota/Alaska
Kitbuilt airplane community? - WIsconsin near EAA
Twins and fast go-places planes? - any urban area
Hookers and blow? - SE USA with @eman1200
 
kontiki said:
Single old guy here. Been trying to figure out where I might like to retire too. Was just wondering what areas of the country have an active GA community.
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Here you can have an idea on how many active EAA chapters are per state. This doesn't necessarily means that the GA community is active, but is a good start:

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/eaa-chapters/ChapterMap

Now you need to check availability for hangars, airports, A&Ps, avionics shops, étc. And for yourself, just make sure you can have access to a doctor/hospital.
 
@Half Fast is being much too kind. We have bears raiding neighborhoods on a daily basis here. Not safe for anyone! Save yourselves and continue south to Florida.
 
The last time I saw info from the FAA, California, Texas, & Florida had more aircraft than all other states combined.

I live in Texas and it's a very active state for flying. In general, the weather is good for flying all year and we have a lot of airports, camping events, airshows, etc. Anywhere near the big cities, housing is getting expensive and hangars are almost impossible to find.
 
Half Fast said:
TN would be much better. In FL the hurricanes will tear the roof off your hangar (if you win the lottery and get a hangar) and toss your plane into the Gulf of Mexico.
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Same with NC. TN has those wildfires. And you couldn’t pay me to live in Florida. Alaska seems to be the place. NJ, NY are nice places or so I hear.
 
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GaryM said:
Not NJ. It has lead the nation in people getting out for 7 years running. A full 36% of residents say they are definitely planning to leave, and that number increases to 64% among those soon to retire. https://nj1015.com/poll-says-59-of-nj-residents-are-moving-out-should-you-stay-or-go-opinion/
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I know I see their license plates every day. Ruined one state, move to another state and ruin it. They moved to where I grew up, ruined it. I moved out but apparently not far enough.
don’t be shocked, I just verbalize what everybody else is thinking but are too polite to say.
 
Morgan3820 said:
I know I see their license plates every day. Ruined one state, move to another state and ruin it. They moved to where I grew up, ruined it. I moved out but apparently not far enough.
don’t be shocked, I just verbalize what everybody else is thinking but are too polite to say.
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Yeah, yeah. But many wanna move because it’s ruined. But they ain’t the ones what ruined it. Unfortunately they are stuck with the stigma that was generated by others who ruined it. I don’t get this what State you’re from somehow seems to be genetically ingrained into your DNA. Like how some people seem to self identify the content of their personality and character based on what State they live in. It’s almost like if they weren’t from that State, they wouldn’t know who they were anymore.
 
luvflyin said:
Yeah, yeah. But many wanna move because it’s ruined. But they ain’t the ones what ruined it. Unfortunately they are stuck with the stigma that was generated by others who ruined it. I don’t get this what State you’re from somehow seems to be genetically ingrained into your DNA. Like how some people seem to self identify the content of their personality and character based on what State they live in. It’s almost like if they weren’t from that State, they wouldn’t know who they were anymore.
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Perhaps. But there is no denying that the flood of refugees from the blue cities/states to the red areas have altered the quality of life of the locals. An issue that the refugees don’t seem to be sensitive to.
 
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Morgan3820 said:
Perhaps. But there is no denying that the flood of refugees from the blue cities/states to the red areas have altered the quality of life of the locals.
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I'm trying to convince Gov DeSantis that we need to build a wall.

BTW, I forgot to mention lovebugs above. @Salty reminded me. Not only do they take the paint off your car and airplane, if you're a motorcyclist they take the enamel off your teeth.

And if lovebugs aren't bad enough, our theme parks are killing kids. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/tee...amusement-park-ride-couldve/story?id=84303244
 
Morgan3820 said:
Perhaps. But there is no denying that the flood of refugees from the blue cities/states to the red areas have altered the quality of life of the locals. An issue that the refugees don’t seem to be sensitive to.
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No doubt about that. That’s the general direction of the exodus. But accusing everyone who makes the move as personally responsible for the conditions that motivated the move ain’t helping nothing
 
Morgan3820 said:
Perhaps. But there is no denying that the flood of refugees from the blue cities/states to the red areas have altered the quality of life of the locals. An issue that the refugees don’t seem to be sensitive to.
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I was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island WA in 1988, yes, 34 years ago, and the gripe at the time was all the California folks moving up and destroying the way of life. I didn't see it while I lived there (orders out in 95) Took them that long to do it but they have truly brought CA to what was a paradise and made it another nanny state.

We're retiring to NH and when I speak to the locals they get a fearful look and I assure them we like NH just the way it is and don't want it to change.
 
Did I remember to mention that Florida is getting much too crowded?
 
Jim K said:
I think there's active ga communities near pretty well any population center. TX and FL seem to have the highest concentrations. Hard to find a hangar in Florida, and between the storms, congestion, and salt air, it's not my favorite place to fly. I'd suggest finding a climate you like, then scoping out the airports in the area to see where there's hangar space and maybe an active EAA chapter of that's your thing.
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But if you are an older guy go where you want, Florida has become pricey, only bugs I knew were no-see-ums, unless you live in a swamp., lots of places to fly to fly to, lot of residential air parks, so heat and no cold, and no state income taxes, home insurance tough, I like the Northern part of the state fewer people and the temps not quite as high as you go farther South, there is not one catch all state
 
MS is cheap… that’s about all it has going for it, besides being close to the coast. My hangar is $1710 a year and avgas is still around $4.00 a gallon.

Plenty of the old, waiting to die, EAA meeting fossils… a few cool aviation people.

We also have Neanderthals, rednecks, tornados, hurricanes, and the climate of a ball sack.
 
Moving to Peachtree City GA at the end of the month. Initial impressions of KFFC are very good. I'll report back once we're settled in.

Any other FFC based pilots here?
 
Flocker said:
Moving to Peachtree City GA at the end of the month. Initial impressions of KFFC are very good. I'll report back once we're settled in.

Any other FFC based pilots here?
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You mean Delta base housing? You can't throw a beer bottle down the golf-cart purposed streets in Peachtree City and not hit an airline pylet. :D Finding a hangar might be a spendy and scarce proposition though....
 
Flocker said:
Moving to Peachtree City GA at the end of the month. Initial impressions of KFFC are very good. I'll report back once we're settled in.

Any other FFC based pilots here?
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No longer in Georgia, but I have some experience at KFFC

Peach tree city is nice, the 2 biggest arguments against it are:

1) You can go a little farther south and find some amazing options on grass runways. Peachstate, Big T, Eagles Landing.

2) It seems impossible to find a house with less than 5 bedrooms. The Atlanta suburbs have really taken the McMansion concept to heart.

Having said that, KFFC is a nice airport, but don't get your hopes up for renting a hangar out there. I have been on the wait list for almost 5 years without a call.

Best thing about KFFC, you can buy ethanol free Mogas less than a mile from the field.
 
luvflyin said:
No doubt about that. That’s the general direction of the exodus. But accusing everyone who makes the move as personally responsible for the conditions that motivated the move ain’t helping nothing
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Maybe, but I have found that I am close to correct often enough.
 
Half Fast said:
Avoid Florida. Gators will eat your dog and mosquitoes will eat you. Much too crowded, too. And I won’t even mention the debilitating heat. Terrible place for retirement.

And it’s awful for general aviation. Aside from a small airport every 10 miles, more lakes and seaplane bases than you can count, nearby destinations like the Keys and the Bahamas, being home to Piper and a few seaplane manufacturers, several warbird museums, year-round flyable weather, and hosting Sun-n-Fun every spring, Florida has nothing to offer the aviation enthusiast.

Did I mention that it’s too crowded here?

Maybe you should consider either southern North Dakota or northern South Dakota, depending on which climate you prefer.
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Agreed. We have a lot of airports, but we have a lot more old people that move down here next to the airports then complain about the noise and the "soot" falling from the skies from those airplanes and the noise and anything else they can complain about. They create traffic jams by driving too slowly, then they complain about the traffic. Then when they run out of things to complain about, they complain about too many people and too much development (which they are the cause of) and then they complain about the noise again.
Please, don't move to Florida. The only good thing about Florida is that even though I'll be 70 next month, I am usually one of the younger people at public meetings and grocery stores and restaurants.
 
MarkH said:
It seems impossible to find a house with less than 5 bedrooms. The Atlanta suburbs have really taken the McMansion concept to heart.
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We got lucky on that front. Found a single level home with 3BDRMs and it's a 10 min golf cart ride to the airport!
 
MarkH said:
No longer in Georgia, but I have some experience at KFFC

Peach tree city is nice, the 2 biggest arguments against it are:

1) You can go a little farther south and find some amazing options on grass runways. Peachstate, Big T, Eagles Landing.

2) It seems impossible to find a house with less than 5 bedrooms. The Atlanta suburbs have really taken the McMansion concept to heart.

Having said that, KFFC is a nice airport, but don't get your hopes up for renting a hangar out there. I have been on the wait list for almost 5 years without a call.

Best thing about KFFC, you can buy ethanol free Mogas less than a mile from the field.
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While FFC is a very GA friendly environment among the tenants, the airport management seems to want to turn it into PDK-south. The fuels prices are consistently highest in the area, airport mgmt refuses to put in self-serve fuel, the hangar rents are among the highest in the entire ATL metro area (second only to PDK, IIRC), attempts to invest in the airport by tenants self-funding hangar development is shunned by management, and I read recently that the board recently decided to rewrite lease agreements to further degrade the feasibility of private investment in the airport.

Despite all that, it is a pretty active GA airport. The CAF is on the far end of the airport, there is a large gaggle (Falcon RV Squadron) of RV builders and flyers based there (and surrounding airports), and there is fairly active flight school based there (it took a hit when Korean or China - can't remember which - pulled their flight training contract at the beginning of COVID).

I mostly (when I'm current) fly out of CCO or HMP (formerly known as 4A7), but have occasionally dropped into FFC for their RV hangar events and am on the Falcon RV email distro, which is always active with something going on.
 
CJones said:
While FFC is a very GA friendly environment among the tenants, the airport management seems to want to turn it into PDK-south. The fuels prices are consistently highest in the area, airport mgmt refuses to put in self-serve fuel, the hangar rents are among the highest in the entire ATL metro area (second only to PDK, IIRC), attempts to invest in the airport by tenants self-funding hangar development is shunned by management, and I read recently that the board recently decided to rewrite lease agreements to further degrade the feasibility of private investment in the airport.
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Interesting. I plan to be as involved as they will let me be at FFC. I met Hope (Airport Manager) a few weeks ago and I plan to start attending the Airport Board Meetings once we get moved in. As you can see in my Profile, I'm committed to solving the hangar problem throughout the state of Georgia and the southeast. I'll keep the group posted.
 
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