Flying GA Into Philly Int'l?

jordane93

Touchdown! Greaser!
PoA Supporter
Joined
Sep 9, 2013
Messages
10,663
Location
Long Island, NY
Display Name

Display name:
Jordan
so i'm thinking of flying into philly with a cherokee sometime next week. anyone have experience? it will be my first class B airport that i'm flying to. i'll probably file IFR just to make things easier. from what i'm reading, the fees are not too bad. gas is expensive but the landing fee is 10 bucks and atlantic charges a BS "security" fee for 25 dollars and the ramp fee will be waived with i think a 15 gallon purchase. yay or nay? i fly out of KFRG
 
Last edited:
I haven't done it, but I'd be willing. The airport diagram looks uncomplicated around the FBO. If they have you land on 26 the taxi looks very easy, and it's not bad for 35 either.
 
Why? Just to say you landed at a B or because you have to do something in Philly and Philly Intl is the most convenient airport to where you need to be?
 
I haven't done it, but I'd be willing. The airport diagram looks uncomplicated around the FBO. If they have you land on 26 the taxi looks very easy, and it's not bad for 35 either.
yea it looks like an easy taxi from those runways
 
Why? Just to say you landed at a B or because you have to do something in Philly and Philly Intl is the most convenient airport to where you need to be?
i'm building time for my commercial and i thought it would be fun to fly to philly. i guess also to check landing at a class b off my list also. the main reason is to build time
 
If you're just wanting to go to a Class B and build time, CVG has no landing fees and usually isn't too busy. Went flying from MGY to IOP a couple weeks back and got cleared through the Bravo without asking and without needing it.
 
i'm building time for my commercial and i thought it would be fun to fly to philly. i guess also to check landing at a class b off my list also. the main reason is to build time

If you want, save you some $$ to do it as a T&G. I never saw it as a thrilling thing though LOL. I save my excursions into Class Bs for when I have to pick someone up there. It's really not that exciting of a thing. I'd rather land at Ocean City or Cape May NJ, have something to eat and walk over to the beach.
 
I flown into there a couple of times. Once on a Cherokee. The controllers are nice and friendly, they shouldn't give you trouble. Expect to land on runway 26/8 as it's the closest to Atlantic (the only FBO on the field).

If you want you can give the tower a call before you depart, let them know to expect you and ask if they will have any special procedures for you. Chances are they won't. They will probably ask you to fly IFR so you'll be in the system, but you don't have to pick up the actual clearance.

Regarding the FBO, Atlantic, not the nicest FBO. They will not let you go back to your airplane until you pay all the fees, they actually have a security guard sitting by the door who will physically try to stop you. The fees there will be per person, not per aircraft. So if you do not have to walk into the actual FBO, don't, it will be cheaper.


Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
PHL is too busy to waste time and effort trying to squeeze in - and Henning is recommending you ask for the option? hahahaha - nice one Henning!

By all means if you want to add a Bravo - and since you are trying to build time - fly across the endless state of PA and land at CVG - its a shell of its former glory . . .
 
Did they get stiffed one too many times or what?

I would think that kind of attitude would not be popular with the guy in the back of the G650 wanting to go back to the aircraft to retrieve his briefcase or something.
 
By all means if you want to add a Bravo - and since you are trying to build time - fly across the endless state of PA and land at CVG - its a shell of its former glory . . .

>endless state of PA

Ain't that the truth. Driving across it E-W sucked so much when I had to do it a couple times a month a couple years back.
 
Did they get stiffed one too many times or what?

I would think that kind of attitude would not be popular with the guy in the back of the G650 wanting to go back to the aircraft to retrieve his briefcase or something.

Last time I flew there I refused to go inside the FBO and called them on the phone to give them a credit card number to pay the fees.

It's a nice FBO, I just don't want to deal with their security.

It's the only FBO on the field, so I guess they can do whatever they want. Too easy when you have no competition.
 
Last edited:
My wife and I went to PHL for our anniversary this year. We went VFR into PHL and parked at Atlantic. Fees and fuel prices are relatively reasonable for an airport of this size (compare to BOS...). Security fee is BS, but part of the cost of using many airports like this. If you're actually going into the city Atlantic was great. Typical big FBO experience with them helping with bags and driving us to the train station and picking us up when we returned two days later. The train was a reasonably quick ride into the city and quite frequent. I just called Atlantic to arrange to be picked back up when we were pulling into the station.

Philly was a great city to visit. I recommend you at least spend the day there.
 
If you're just wanting to go to a Class B and build time, CVG has no landing fees and usually isn't too busy. Went flying from MGY to IOP a couple weeks back and got cleared through the Bravo without asking and without needing it.

I think it will be much cheaper to pay the fees at KPHL than fly all the way to KCVG. He is based at KFRG, which is in Long Island, NY.
 
PHL is too busy to waste time and effort trying to squeeze in - and Henning is recommending you ask for the option? hahahaha - nice one Henning!

By all means if you want to add a Bravo - and since you are trying to build time - fly across the endless state of PA and land at CVG - its a shell of its former glory . . .

Busy depends on the time of day. I used to sit on a tug right under their path and there would be hours when hardly anyone arrived or took off.
 
thanks for the input guys. the main problem is i'm splitting time with the guy and he doesn't have the money to do at trip to CVG. so it seems the consensus is that atlantic is a hastle
 
I used to fly into PHL regularly and stop at Atlantic.

It is not a big deal. Ignore those who say otherwise. Yes, PHL gets busy so just be on your game and go as fast as you can. For landing you'll either be on 28 (right next to Atlantic) or 35. Once I got 17, but only once. Either one is easy. File IFR. Leaving you'll need to talk to clearance delivery, ground, and probably depart 35 at kilo intersection.

No big deal. If you fly out of FRG, it's busier, but again no big deal.

Go for it. It's a good experience. It'll be $50 at Atlantic to land, but the pretzels are free. They're friendly there but won't waive the ramp fee.
 
Yeah - go do a T&G at PHL. Great advice, let's pizz off the tower and appr guys just as much as we possibly can - that will really help the next GA guy wanting to stop at PHL, or PHX, or BUR, etc.

Never been to PHL but plenty of times into other B center airports. Just be professional, and polite, and do what they tell you when they tell you. Have the taxi diagrams ready when you are clear of the runway, they like that.
 
Oh jeez. the cluelessness of it all is astounding.
 
Why would a T&G pizz off a controller?:confused:

I once asked for a full stop taxi back at JFK, that was the most confused sounding controller I ever heard. He said "taxi back where?"
 
If you want, save you some $$ to do it as a T&G.

Why would a T&G pizz off a controller?:confused:

Most class B airports won't let you do a T&G. You need clearance to get back OUT of the airspace, remember? I don't have an AFD handy but I'm fairly certain that on KPHX's pages it says "Touch and go's are not permitted."
 
Oh jeez. the cluelessness of it all is astounding.

Please explain where I am clueless as to why it "in, out, and gone" would pizz off the controller.... You spend the minimum time on the runway and provide the minimum obstruction to the rest of the traffic flow. As long as you don't choose a push time to do it, it's not really any worry.

Personally I don't understand why someone would go into a Class B without a real reason for going there, but that's not the point.
 
Most class B airports won't let you do a T&G. You need clearance to get back OUT of the airspace, remember? I don't have an AFD handy but I'm fairly certain that on KPHX's pages it says "Touch and go's are not permitted."

Your probably right, I once asked to do a T&G at PHX (I was bored).....they didn't let me.
 
worst things that may happen: get vectored all the way to where you came from so they can throw you in the sequence. Wait for 45 minutes with the engine running before take off for all the landing traffic to clear. Other than that, calls B's are like any other controlled airport. I don't know why people are so afraid of them.
Also, I can see a bunch of heavys getting annoyed by the speed and lousy radio work of the bug smasher driver.
 
My experience was landing 28 and departing 35 at Kilo intersection, just like Ted said. I didn't have to spend that much time on the ground. But, especially if you are renting by the Hobbs hour you should be prepared for the $$ consequence of a long wait on the ground. You can use a handheld to get ATIS and call clearance delivery. I was flying VFR at the time because I hadn't completed my instrument rating yet. IFR in low weather is certainly going to spend more time on the ground waiting.
 
the controllers will try to land you on the closest runway to the FBO.The security fee is to cover the cost of the security guard,to cover TSA requirements.i use wings field in bluebell when visiting philly. this avoids a lot of waiting on the ground.have several class B airports on my list. Usually no big deal ,some times taxing can prove confusing.
 
I used to fly there all the time for meetings. The best thing about the airport is that there is a train that goes downtown. The quick, inexpensive ground transportation makes up for the high fees. Sometimes, Atlantic would run me downtown in a van. You will probably get Runway 26, which is right alongside the GA ramp. IFR will make things easier. Be prepared to keep your speed up on approach.
 
Did they get stiffed one too many times or what?

I would think that kind of attitude would not be popular with the guy in the back of the G650 wanting to go back to the aircraft to retrieve his briefcase or something.

Boston Logan does the same thing. Its a secured ramp.

I once asked for a full stop taxi back at JFK, that was the most confused sounding controller I ever heard. He said "taxi back where?"

Should have told them to Islip LOL
 
I've flown there round trip a couple of times this fall (ie from Maryland to Philly to pick up friend/s, out to do something, back to Philly to drop them off, then back home to Maryland).

Never particularly push times (once Labor Day afternoon and evening, once a random Sunday afternoon, departing Monday early afternoon). Small airplanes (C172 and DA20).

Philly approach was very friendly; you'll be vectored to final and asked to maintain best forward speed. I was VFR each time, and they were even willing to work with me one day that was pseudo-IFR (ie a couple of low scattered layers meant they were using the ILS, though VFR flight was possible).

Tower was fine; the only hiccup I had was the first time departing, stayed on the ground frequency after being instructed to taxi to an intersection which (unbeknownst to me) was the queue for departure and the tower's domain. After no calls for me and another plane that got to the intersection (via a different taxiway) after me taking off before me, I figured out what was going on and changed to tower. No harm no foul.

Atlantic is fine. $10 per landing, $20 security fee, $40 facilities fee waived with some amount of fuel. Includes first overnight free and a nice crew car. They let me depart without paying when I said I was going to come back and buy fuel later in the day, and the total of the two fuel purchases was enough to waive facilities fee. I don't know; they seemed flexible as far as I could tell. On the second trip, they "lost" the charge one of my fuel purchases. I pointed it out, and they waived my security fee.
 
Same cost to land at PHL as PNE (northeast). You can also take a train that runs every 20 minutes from the airport to center city. During rush hour that may be a quicker option.

PHL approach is very easy to work with and friendly to GA. Once in a while they will deny flight following, usually by asking you to try back in 10 minutes because of work load.
 
thanks for all the information guys! i'm going to need to do a run up when i leave, ground will probably want me to do it on the ramp right? and be ready when cleared for take off, most likely at Kilo intersection 35. and total fees for the day i'm looking at $30? i should be arriving there around 11-1145 am. is it busy at that time?
 
Fees were $50 for a piston single with no fuel purchase. Do your run-up on the ramp before calling for taxi. 11 AM shouldn't be too terrible. Have fun!
 
thanks for all the information guys! i'm going to need to do a run up when i leave, ground will probably want me to do it on the ramp right? and be ready when cleared for take off, most likely at Kilo intersection 35. and total fees for the day i'm looking at $30? i should be arriving there around 11-1145 am. is it busy at that time?

You can do it on the ramp if you like, just make sure there is no one behind you. However you will have plenty of time to do it on the taxiway.
 
If you'd requested a "fly by" and multiple TNG's THEN they might have:goofy::goofy:

"time to buzz the tower!"


I actually did a full stop, taxied to the ramp, called clearance, and go out of there. Was bored, had nothing better to do.
 
Back
Top