Best GA airport for Denver in 1Q 2022?

schmookeeg

schmookeeg

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Mike Brannigan
Howdy,

I am ferrying a plane from TN to CA tomorrow, and plan to collect some passengers from DEN for the onward journey.

I am considering whether to land at DEN proper, or one of the outlying airports. My instinct is usually an outlying field, but the passenger pick-up complicates my thinking.

I'd love a blend of:

Reasonable 100LL
Access to rental or crew car for an overnight
If not Denver, then reasonable driving distance/traffic pain to collect my people and return

I will be in a turbonormalized bonanza, but will also be doing transition training outbound, so a low-pressure airport environment would be helpful too.

It appears they renamed front range to be some sort of wacky spaceport, added a space force base, and otherwise mucked around since I was through there last in GA. I'm hoping there is an obvious "oh man, totally land here" answer I could leverage from the braintrust. :)

Appreciate any guidance.

Cheers,

- Mike
 
I am not a local, but when I go visit my siblings there I use the airport formerly known as Front Range. I think it meets all your criteria. But others may too.
 
schmookeeg said:
Howdy,

I am ferrying a plane from TN to CA tomorrow, and plan to collect some passengers from DEN for the onward journey.

I am considering whether to land at DEN proper, or one of the outlying airports. My instinct is usually an outlying field, but the passenger pick-up complicates my thinking.

I'd love a blend of:

Reasonable 100LL
Access to rental or crew car for an overnight
If not Denver, then reasonable driving distance/traffic pain to collect my people and return

I will be in a turbonormalized bonanza, but will also be doing transition training outbound, so a low-pressure airport environment would be helpful too.

It appears they renamed front range to be some sort of wacky spaceport, added a space force base, and otherwise mucked around since I was through there last in GA. I'm hoping there is an obvious "oh man, totally land here" answer I could leverage from the braintrust. :)

Appreciate any guidance.

Cheers,

- Mike
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I don't know squat about Denver so can't help ya. But let me be the first to play with "...reasonable driving distance/traffic pain...." Betcha some Denver folk here will say that was well put.
 
KDEN, Denver Int'l, is do-able. Signature has a shuttle van that they use to pick up passengers at the terminals. But, expensive landing fees, expensive fuel, and handling charges, etc., plus, it's a busy Class B "A-game" airport. KCFO, used to be Front Range, now Colorado Air and Space Port, is a great choice. Call the FBO for details on rental cars, (I think Hertz and/or Enterprise are available there.) and there is an inexpensive shuttle service for pax to and from Denver Int'l, only minutes away by uncrowded county roads. Unless you have reason to be closer to downtown, KAPA or KBJC are way further away from the big airport.
 
Jim Carpenter said:
KDEN, Denver Int'l, is do-able. Signature has a shuttle van that they use to pick up passengers at the terminals. But, expensive landing fees, expensive fuel, and handling charges, etc., plus, it's a busy Class B "A-game" airport. KCFO, used to be Front Range, now Colorado Air and Space Port, is a great choice. Call the FBO for details on rental cars, (I think Hertz and/or Enterprise are available there.) and there is an inexpensive shuttle service for pax to and from Denver Int'l, only minutes away by uncrowded county roads. Unless you have reason to be closer to downtown, KAPA or KBJC are way further away from the big airport.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim/Van -- I was thinking CFO, but renaming it to a spaceport sort of cooked my brain. I envisioned having to dodge tie fighters in the pattern and was repulsed. Their website also indicates no services at the moment, but will call for fresh intel. :)
 
Front Range is now Colorado Air and Carport. When it gets a spacecraft, I’ll call is a Spaceport. I’m based there. Low traffic, easy to get a car -call in advance and it will be waiting for you. Easy to get to for your pax, and easy to get into Denver area but that’s at least a 20 min drive to Aurora (‘burb on the east side of Denver) But…. there’s no place to overnight that’s nearby, 10-15 min drive to decent hotels at DEN. If the weather turns bad, the staff will put the plane into a hangar if you leave instructions. Excellent mexican restaurant on the field.

KAPA - one of the busiest GA in the country, high volume traffic all the time, really close to hotels ( one on the field) and 2 excellent restaurants on the field. Easy to get to because it’s close -southeast ‘burb of Denver. Car rental unless flying a jet. Learned to fly there, still frequent the place.

Rocky Mtn Metro…aka Jeffco on NW ‘burb of Denver. Easy for pax to get to, hotels and restaurants nearby but a bit of a walk. One of the white collar business areas. Watch out for the winds coming down from the hills, Don’t know about car rentals but I know they have them.

It really comes down to what is most convneient for the pax. If they are at DEN, then might be CFO is more practical. But, they’ll be on the commercial side and you’ll be on the GA side and to get from one to another is, shall we say interesting? Huge landing fee for you - it’s Signature. Lots of hotels and such - you’re at a class B afterall. Call Signature and ask about fees and how to get the pax from the commercial terminal to Signature. DEN might be the most practical based on what you need. But be prepared for the most expensive gas in the area.

DEN Signature has TSA requirements IIRC because it’s on the field. None of the others do, because there’s no scheduled commercial service.

CFO doesn’t even have fence! Altho under class B, you can be out of the area in 10 min in any direction except west for your training. Look at the map. Buckley is very cooperative if you need to go thru their airspace.

CFO might work best, get a car to drive the 6 miles to pick up your pax, then stay at a DEN hotel. CFO has an arrangement with a local taxi if that works better, but a rental really us more practical. Call them. 303-261-9100.

Lots of options.
 
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Are your passengers flying into DEN? If not, then DEN is the outlying airport.
 
Ditto what murphey said.....except, Denver DEN Signature has no particular TSA requirements (steenking badges or otherwise), other than having to ask the desk to buzz the door open for ramp access. The facility is a fair distance from the airline terminals, and any outbound airline pax have to start at the front of security, just like being dropped off by car. But, yes, CFO is likely your best choice.
 
NOBODY lives by DIA, it's actually in Kansas.

Centennial is busy. Ground controller yelled at me as a student pilot on a night flight. Made me sad. Hurt my feelings. Still getting over it.

Rocky Mountain Metro (BJC) is probably the choice. Pretty close to the mountains though.
 
Going back to the OP- the pax are at DEN, CFO is closest to pick them up. Easiest airspace for the transition training.
 
schmookeeg said:
Thanks gents. Giving CFO a try. Will keep an eye out for spacecraft :D
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Let me know when you're planning on coming in. If there's time, the CO-POA group is in dire need of a get-together (lunch, drinks, whatever). We haven't had one since Mark picked up the Monkey after skiing.

----

Nevermind, just noticed your plans were for yesterday.
 
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