flying to disneyland

C

CJ O'Hara

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Jan 15, 2018
Messages
2
Display Name
Display name:
CJ O'Hara
Hello all!

I'm taking my girlfriend to Disneyland, flying from Goodyear, AZ to John Wayne. I'm not expecting much craziness since I'm a Cessna 172 with GPS onboard and my iPad has Foreflight. Is there anything out of the ordinary I need to be prepared for when approaching the area and/or departing?
 
Fullerton, KFUL, is closer to Disneyland. No big deal to fly into the area, just be on your toes, review class B airspace before hand and be ready with a plan in case they deny you.
 
RalphInCA said:
Fullerton, KFUL, is closer to Disneyland. No big deal to fly into the area, just be on your toes, review class B airspace before hand and be ready with a plan in case they deny you.
Click to expand...
This. If you are flying in a 172, go to FUL. Much closer and cheaper.
 
Fullerton, hands down. Short (3200x60) runway and a little hard to spot among the light-industrial buildings nearby. But it’s a friendly, convenient place for light GA, and much closer to the Mouse House.
 
Yup, Fullerton is the place to go for Disneyland access. Far easier than dealing with SNA and the 55 freeway. Rental cars available, I recommended AFI for the FBO, great family-owned operation. Give them a call they'll hook you up with a rental car. If you get some gas there, they'll likely comp you a night of parking in their tiedowns (city tiedowns are all $10/night).

Typically just a straight-in approach from over the Chino area, just talk to the SoCal controllers from San Bernardino/Banning Pass area westward. They're friendly and helpful if you sound like even a remotely competent pilot. Just stay north of the 91 freeway (east-west, a bit south of Fullerton), and that will keep you north of the Disney TFR (which won't be critical anyway if you're talking to the controllers).
 
Definitely KFUL. Closer and no tangling with airliners. If you're instrument rated KFUL has two straight-in approaches from the east. Using them as an aid VFR is quite handy. Also, there is a very tall radio tower west of the airport. Keep that in mind for departure or a go-around.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Yup, Fullerton is the place to go for Disneyland access. Far easier than dealing with SNA and the 55 freeway. Rental cars available, I recommended AFI for the FBO, great family-owned operation. Give them a call they'll hook you up with a rental car. If you get some gas there, they'll likely comp you a night of parking in their tiedowns (city tiedowns are all $10/night).
Click to expand...

Used to go there quite often, but haven't been in a couple of years. Would normally stay a week, do a few flight from there as a staging base (Catalina, Yosemite, etc.). Didn't know they were now charging for parking. Visited with the Griggs on each stop, so not sure if that's why they didn't charge. Great father and son outfit. They always sent someone out to refuel you at the self serve pump.
 
I do that trip monthly. Another vote for FUL for Disneyland. I have done SNA and fly into Charlie airport FBO's regularly and it is really more hassle than it is worth there, especially for a Mouse House trip. KFUL parking at General Aviation is $10/night with first night waived with fuel and AFI I believe is free parking with fuel, no ramp fees and cheaper gas at either vs SNA fees. Both have self serve and full serve with pushback/tiedown service. Awesome little GA airport and is closer to Disneyland. $12 Uber ride...tricky to spot in the industrial area though. Foreflight extended centerline feature has saved my bacon more than once trying to locate the field there

Just know where your Bravo Shelves are and the rest is easy peasy especially with Foreflight. SoCal Approach is VERY accommodating to GA, they WANT to be taking to ya. Just be ready for a LOT of traffic advisories, quick radio handoffs and vectors from ATC to keep ya clear of approach and departure paths.

From AZ if you come though Banning Pass it will be pretty much straight in to either airport. Watch the winds through Banning Pass...they get rippin and it creates a funnel right through there.

If you do choose SNA, VFR there is a 15 degree offset approach expected to 20L to keep clear of the big iron coming into 20R. If you are going IFR, request the visual for either field if it is VMC regardless of what ATIS is sayin is in use otherwise you may encounter a lot of unnecessary vectors being sequenced in for an approach.

RalphInCA said:
review class B airspace before hand and be ready with a plan in case they deny you
Click to expand...

Shouldn't need a Bravo transition coming in from the East to FUL or SNA.
 
Last edited:
danhagan said:
Used to go there quite often, but haven't been in a couple of years. Would normally stay a week, do a few flight from there as a staging base (Catalina, Yosemite, etc.). Didn't know they were now charging for parking. Visited with the Griggs on each stop, so not sure if that's why they didn't charge. Great father and son outfit. They always sent someone out to refuel you at the self serve pump.
Click to expand...

If you get gas from AFI and they have room in their tiedowns, they might not charge for multiple nights. The city parking in front of the tower/terminal does have the $10 overnight fee. AFI can't waive it if you park there.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to go IFR from Glendale to Blythe to refuel and then to the mouse house. Now, my friend says it'll save some drive time to fly into John Wayne and then drive to our hotel. Should I try and save the 10 minutes drive time or is it just better for a GA aircraft to get into Fullerton and go from there?

I hear SoCal ATC is quite pleasant to deal with and going IFR, they tend to be very helpful. True?
 
Hi.
10 min is no sacrifice in CA some drive hundreds of miles, per day, just to go to work.
Yes, it is best a KFUL, less expensive tiedowns, easier in and out, has a Cafe on the field, use General aviation with possible overnight hangar if you choose and or AFI. You can spend 20min on the ground before take off, at KSNA.
 
CJ O'Hara said:
Should I try and save the 10 minutes drive time or is it just better for a GA aircraft to get into Fullerton and go from there?
Click to expand...

You won't save anything. Drive time SNA to Disneyland is 20 min and is subject to heavier traffic during commute times (which is daylight hours is daylight house in SoCal). KFUL to DL is 12-15 min and rarely hit any traffic that direction...plus as mentioned above your time between the car and wheels up/down will be a fraction of what it can be at SNA.

Nothing wrong with SNA and they are very GA friendly...but as you can tell by the overwhelming responses here FUL is really the better choice for your mission.
 
CJ O'Hara said:
I hear SoCal ATC is quite pleasant to deal with and going IFR, they tend to be very helpful. True?
Click to expand...
Yes. SoCal is probably the easiest to deal with and most accommodating of all TRACONs even though they are busy.

Going in IFR makes it a non-event and flying an approach solves the one issue that many VFR aircraft have with FUL: visually finding it among the surrounding city.
 
Here's some useless advice: After Chino, overfly Cal State Fullerton, and then line up with the courthouses and you can't miss the airport.

I guess it works if you lived in the area for 30+ years.
 
Ravioli said:
Here's some useless advice: After Chino, overfly Cal State Fullerton, and then line up with the courthouses and you can't miss the airport.

I guess it works if you lived in the area for 30+ years.
Click to expand...
That's a good tip. But it wouldn't have worked when I learned to fly at FUL in the mid 1960s. There was no localizer; photochemical smog was worse than it is now. I did a lot of solo pattern work when tower was calling visibility of three miles (wink wink, nudge nudge). I'd be #10 in the pattern and told to extend downwind to St. Jude's which, coincidentally, is three miles from the airport.

As Yogi Berra might have described it, turning final into the hazy setting sun was 90% faith and the other half local knowledge. :oops:
 
Gotta watch out for that St. Jude's hospital. People like me were hatched there in the mid-60's!
 
The Fullerton controllers are awesome! SoCAL approach as well - being from PHX area, you'll be spoiled (my worst encounters were with PHX approach). On EVERY trip to Fulleron (I guess they could see on the strip I originated out of Texas) they would offer vectors for a straight in approach. I had their localizer tuned also just in case. If you review some satellite images it isn't too hard to find. You'd think they'd cut down that stupid palm tree on approach near the railroad tracks and fence.

AFI offered free water and a popsicle for the heat everytime I landed there in summer as well. That FBO and the one at Stinson in San Antonio are the best I've ever been. Made several trips to both. The factory roofs in summer put out some massive uplift, even more than I have encountered landing in the desert - last trip there at idle thrust, full flaps, nose down 10* and a slight slip STILL couldn't descend out of 400 feet. Started WAY earlier after the go-around and landed fine. Everyone behind me was landing long and squealing tires as I was unloading.
 
If your hotel is anywhere near Disney, I cannot imagine a circumstance when the drive from KSNA would be quicker than the drive from KFUL - and it's a more pleasant drive.

Fullerton's a nice town - I lived there for a while, and I admit that I miss it sometimes. The airport is excellent.
 
Another vote for KFUL and General Aviation. Great airport, easy ride to Disneyland, and there are some good hotels not far away that will be cheaper than the Disneyland area hotels. Plus you're just 30 minutes from Huntington and Newport Beach if you want to hang at the beach for any length of time. General Aviation will work with Enterprise to get you a rental car if you need one.
 
Fullerton is easy, not too busy and close to everything. SNA is the opposite and the place I did my initial training (solo). Nearly had a mid-air with a Pitts climbing out as I was entering downwind- will never forget that! Also, the surrounding freeways at SNA are to be avoided during commute times.
 
CJ O'Hara said:
my friend says it'll save some drive time to fly into John Wayne and then drive to our hotel
Click to expand...

Unless your hotel happens to be very close to SNA, I find this doubtful. The 55 Freeway is a parking lot much of the day, as is I-5 between the 55 and the 22.
 
Well I know where I’m going if I ever go to Disneyland again, “I’m landing at KFUL!”


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
When flying a club plane (gas reimbursed and night free with fuel) I fly into John Wayne. When I fly my own plane I'll go to Fullerton or even Long Beach (Friends there). Flying and Disneyland isn't cheap so they go great together.
 
Only reason to go SNA is if you also plan to stay coastal (Newport or whatever for your hotel). Otherwise FUL. Honestly, IFR into FUL can be a bigger pita on a vfr day than simply getting a bravo clearance or picking your way through the various bravo layers. ATC vectors when ifr are almost always plentiful given how many airports and how much traffic is in the area. And the wind in banning - I've got video of west bound cars on the 10 fwy passing me on upwind out of BNG.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
IFR into FUL isn't bad, BUT, you need to make it clear pretty early to ATC (suggest start asking no later than eastern edge of Ontario Class C) that you want the LOC or GPS approach to 24, and not the VOR-A. The VOR-A makes no sense from the east, and I only did it once that way because it was a thick marine layer and it put me in the soup for a good 20+ minutes, and I wanted that time in actual IMC.

There is no reason at all to mess with the Bravo going into Fullerton.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
IFR into FUL isn't bad, BUT, you need to make it clear pretty early to ATC (suggest start asking no later than eastern edge of Ontario Class C) that you want the LOC or GPS approach to 24, and not the VOR-A. The VOR-A makes no sense from the east, and I only did it once that way because it was a thick marine layer and it put me in the soup for a good 20+ minutes, and I wanted that time in actual IMC.

There is no reason at all to mess with the Bravo going into Fullerton.
Click to expand...
Other than not exceeding 200 KIAS, which could apply to a few reading this thread.
 
I have a bad experience with icing flying to KFUL in IMC. And this was in March.
 
well . . there is no class B from the pass to orange county to really worry about - its starts out way above you and by the time you wander through Ontario's Charlie you're well south of it - my route from Glendale home [POC] is usually BXK - BLH - SHADI - PSP - then I go direct KONT through the pass but you'll want to go PSP-PDZ direct - keeps you out of the KAYOH7 arrival then just a left turn to the airport - they'll prob have you land on 20L unless you're IFR then you'll get 20R -

If you're coming any time in the couple weeks it'll be VFR - check the winds aloft very very carefully - Banning Pass can be like a blender if you catch with N/NE winds over 20kts. . .
 
Years ago there was a Flying or Plane&Pilot story by a former Ameriflight guy who flew Lances or Saratogas, some PA-32 through Banning every day and wore a football helmet to keep from getting knocked silly. If I remember correctly, he even attributes the death of his successor to not wearing a helmet. It seems everyone is sort of mentioning Banning, but could some locals expound on how bad it actually gets?
 
gasfiltered said:
Years ago there was a Flying or Plane&Pilot story by a former Ameriflight guy who flew Lances or Saratogas, some PA-32 through Banning every day and wore a football helmet to keep from getting knocked silly. If I remember correctly, he even attributes the death of his successor to not wearing a helmet. It seems everyone is sort of mentioning Banning, but could some locals expound on how bad it actually gets?
Click to expand...

I wish I had a camera for this - but - Santa Anas were blowing but the winds were reported almost calm - and I hit the Banning Pass about noon in January - and WHAMMO. Continuous strong moderate, occasionally severe and prob once or twice extreme in a Comanche [yes I had the panels opened to look at the spar after landing - plus the engine mount looked at] --

The photo op was the dog levitating in the rear seating area of the airplane. I removed one of the seats, put cardboard and padding down - and blankets - and my cross country partner [from Connecticut - a true cross country] turned around and said -'holy crap, look at that' and my dog was about 4" off the padding just hanging there - pretty potent downdraft. After we got down he immediately ran and hid inside the car - and when we got to the rental house he found a closet and stayed there for two days - only coming out to pee. He flew with me again though.
 
I’m going to revive this old thread since my question is 90% the same.

I’ll be flying into KFUL VFR next month but coming from the North. Any advice on routing?
 
I'd stay East of the Bravo until El Monte. Then hook a right to KFUL.

Remain below four thousand.
 
Heftiger said:
I’ll be flying into KFUL VFR next month but coming from the North. Any advice on routing?
Click to expand...

From SBA area I go LAX Coastal route @5,500', once past LAX VOR (not before) you can request "lower and direct when able" then they will usually let you descend out of the 5000' Bravo shelf early, vector you SLI to keep you out of LGB departures then direct FUL.

From GMN I do GMN>track I-5>BUR>EMT>FUL @ 3,500'. That will keep you clear of Bravo. If winds are light I hug the hill just east of BUR and that keep you outta BUR traffic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top