Atlanta Area peeps - gimme ur suggestions

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Adventure Aviator

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Adventure Aviator
Just passed my PPL checkride this past week and looking for suggestions for the $100 hamburger in the area. Based at PDK and I would like to take the wife on some short trips to get her acclimated to flying.

Load me up with some suggestions - on airport dining similar to "Down wind" at PDK would be perfect, but not opposed to grabbing an uber or crew car.
 
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McCollum and Gwinett County both have restaurants. GA2 - Alexander Memorial (used to be Peach State) has a good restaurant, but it is a short grass field and you'd better check with the insurance folks before taking a rental there.
 
KTHN. Borrow the crew car and get directions to the nearby barbecue joint.
 
Adventure Aviator said:
Just passed my PPL checkride this past week and looking for suggestions for the $100 hamburger in the area. Based at PDK and I would like to take the wife on some short trips to get her acclimated to flying.
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Congrats on your PPL! For a short hop, LZU and RYY (previously mentioned) are great recommendations for on the field restaurants. Bub-ba-q is a 5 minute ride from JZP. They have 2 crew cars...
 
DZJ would be about a 30 minute flight north. Park on the north side, take the crew car and go to The Aviator. About a 10 minute drive down the road.
 
Greenville Downtown (GMU). There's a restaurant on the field. Taxi over, tie down and walk in. There's even seating outside.

For a longer trip go to Saint Simons (SSI). Lots of good food there. Southern Soul BBQ is across the street from the approach end of Rwy 22; a very short walk from the FBO. You can walk to Monkey Wrench and rent bicycles for the day too.

Jekyll Island (09J) is the next island south. You can walk to a few places or bike to places (better than on Saint Simons) or rent a Red Bug (I think you can get a short-term usage for free).
 
Another idea is the EAA 690's pancake breakfast at LZU. It's the first Saturday each month. See their calendar. It's starts at 8 am, and I think they have a program/speaker start around 10 am.
 
kyleb said:
McCollum and Gwinett County both have restaurants. GA2 - Alexander Memorial (used to be Peach State) has a good restaurant, but it is a short grass field and you'd better check with the insurance folks before taking a rental there.
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Peach State. Alexander is pretty much one way and one way out, you land uphill and take off down hill, you will not have a problem landing or taking off if you do the above of course wind will be a factor, nice place to go, sign up for the newsletter, several fly-ins a year

Runway is 3,000 ft not exactly short

https://www.peachstateaero.com
 
strangebird said:
Peach State. Alexander is pretty much one way and one way out, you land uphill and take off down hill, you will not have a problem landing or taking off if you do the above of course wind will be a factor, nice place to go, sign up for the newsletter, several fly-ins a year

Runway is 3,000 ft not exactly short

https://www.peachstateaero.com
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Yes, that is on my list of want to fly to, but will probably wait until I have my own plane... Doubt the rental place would allow it
 
wayne said:
Greenville Downtown (GMU). There's a restaurant on the field. Taxi over, tie down and walk in. There's even seating outside.

For a longer trip go to Saint Simons (SSI). Lots of good food there. Southern Soul BBQ is across the street from the approach end of Rwy 22; a very short walk from the FBO. You can walk to Monkey Wrench and rent bicycles for the day too.

Jekyll Island (09J) is the next island south. You can walk to a few places or bike to places (better than on Saint Simons) or rent a Red Bug (I think you can get a short-term usage for free).
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I love southern soul bbq, that is a must do again. Thanks for the reminder
 
Adventure Aviator said:
I love southern soul bbq, that is a must do again. Thanks for the reminder
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I did that trip from Thomaston in a 172. Was about a 4 hour round trip of flying time for me. Down at 5500, back at 4500 with flight following. I'd like to do it again.
 
Definitely check out the Barnstormer's Grill (the restaurant at Peachstate/GA2), I would recommend taking a someone with you who has flown into GA2 first. The runway is a grass strip, on a hill, bookended by obstacles. Plenty of runway for most 4 seaters, but the runway coming up to greet you as you land is an interesting feeling if you have never done it before. The grass makes it a little more forgiving, but it also increases your ground roll. Last, watch for NORDO traffic, that airport gets more than its fair share. None of this is a big deal for someone who has flown in and out of there a couple of times (or has a bit of experience, especially with uncontrolled airports), but for a new pilot who trained at a towered airport, it can be intimidating.

Last, I suggest you fly a full pattern, mostly because no one else will.

Keep these details in mind, but don't let any of them discourage you, because flying into that airport is a different experience than flying into any of the paved airports around. I am doing my training there, and even after 60 hours of flying out of that airport, something about touching down on the grass always makes me smile.
 
Been to most of these. KGMU is awesome, as is KLZU. My wife likes the crew cars. We fly to little airports in NC and North Georgia; grab the crew car and go to the best Yelp reviewed place around. Return with more gas in the crew car than we left with.
 
TheFB said:
Been to most of these. KGMU is awesome, as is KLZU. My wife likes the crew cars. We fly to little airports in NC and North Georgia; grab the crew car and go to the best Yelp reviewed place around. Return with more gas in the crew car than we left with.
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Where are some places and associated airports you really liked?
 
Franklin NC 1A5 Insane craft beer (not for PIC) and pizza joint.

Blairsville GA KDZJ - great farm to table restaurant.

Monroe GA D73 - several downtown restaurants, east access crew cars and cheap fuel
 
Monroe and Madison are both nice stops after you tuck under the Class B and loop around Stone Mountain too. I'm new still so those are fun ways to show family friends the aviation bug.
 
Vidalia onion rings :drool:
 
Very cool suggestions.. I would echo LZU, GMU, RYY, Peachstate. Also checkout KRHP and 8A1 - no airport restaurants but cool places to fly into.
 
PIREP!.. well sorta

Well we got cancelled due to weather two weekends in a row. Finally got to take her out last weekend, did the normal "discovery flight" from PDK up to Lanier and circled up there a bit. Logged 1.0 with her and she did fantastic. She was a little motion sick on the way back in when tower asked me to do S-turns for spacing on final for 21L (short runway is closed). There was a skybound plane crossing the numbers when I straightened out and was still about a mile out, he kinda freaked a bit and aborted his landing over the threshold. Tower was like WTF, is everything OK, he said "there was a plane behind me trying to land"... well yeah we were stacked up due to the runway closure, but I handled it all in stride and wife was fine.

We took another fight up to Cirrus Knoxville this week in SR22T and it was great up, but the pilot filed on the way back due to storms in the area, she got her first taste of real IMC.

I am now over 100hrs and about 20 hrs into my instrument training, loving every minute of it.

Thanks for asking and checking in... more pireps to come as we plan some lunch runs.

PICS are on my instagram listed in the signature.
 
Flew out over Lake Jackson this morning and then did my first real grass landing at Peach State. The earlier pireps mentioned this place. Barnstormers Grill was excellent, buffet brunch on Sundays; menu all other times. Lots of fun things to do- museum, glider pulls, experimental, pilots, the lot. My nine year old son and wife loved it.

Lake Jackson isn’t as picturesque as we hoped. Probably spoiled or lack of hills I guess.
 
You'll probably get a $20 ramp fee at PDK to go to the Downwind. My recommendation is The Flying Machine at LZU. Free parking right at their patio, and the best bacon cheese burger around. (Well, except for the Black Diamond, but that's pretty obscure.)
 
Flocker said:
Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of weeks at PDK...
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I was flying back to the south side from GSP Friday afternoon. ATL App was busier than a one armed paper hanger with trying to get folks lined up for PDK and dealing with Falcon Academy guys in their Diamonds around AHN. Stellar job, though. Can't hardly beat the controllers around here.
 
Just got back from Runway Cafe at GMU-nice place, and pretty cheap for a decent burger on an airport. No ramp fee either. If you're used to flying into PDK then it shouldn't be any issue working with the controllers at GMU either.

I'm based over at WDR-PM me if you're ever looking for a safety pilot! I'm about the same point in my instrument work.
 
Gwt9678 said:
Just got back from Runway Cafe at GMU-nice place, and pretty cheap for a decent burger on an airport. No ramp fee either. If you're used to flying into PDK then it shouldn't be any issue working with the controllers at GMU either.

I'm based over at WDR-PM me if you're ever looking for a safety pilot! I'm about the same point in my instrument work.
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Is the restaurant at WDR still open?
 
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