Long Island (NY, not Bahamas)

midlifeflyer

midlifeflyer

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Considering a possible trip to visit family. Haven't flown into there in more than 20 years. KISP? KFRG? Others? Best FBOs?
 
Mark, I think it largely depends on where on Long Island. FRG is more toward the city. ISP more mid island. Further out are the Hamptons and Montauk at the Far East end.
 
If FRG, park at Sheltair.
 
How long a stay and do you need a car plays into it as well. I've had good luck with New York Jet at KISP for when I needed a car over the weekend.
 
I fly from LI and know lots of LI airports.

KISP is a great airport with plenty of FBO options and is never really that crowded. It can get busy but nothing terrible.

KFRG is super crowded and located closer to the city. It would be a very long drive out east from FRF

Brookhaven KHWV has an FBO and is a smaller non towered airport about 20 miles east of Islip KISP. Easy in and out but not many of the amenities of KISP

KFOK( Gabreski) is a smallish towered class D airport that has huge runways and is never very busy and is located about 20 miles west of the Hamptons. They also have an FBO and plenty of parking on the ramps even during the busier summer months.

KHTO( East Hampton) is not well liked by many around these parts. They just opened up a tower and the field is insanely busy during the peak seasons. I've never flown in but the airport does not have a great reputation.

KMTP( Montauk) is a beautiful airport with a crazy approach over dunes in one direction and over sailboat masts from the opposite. I would never fly into the airport unless the weather is calm as the runway is very small. I know it is very expensive to park there and parking is limited but it's a nice option if you want to visit Montauk.

Hope this helps!
 
RichNY said:
If FRG, park at Sheltair.
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Concur -- strongly. Been parking there for my visits to my family since Sheltair took over the FBO there a lot of years back. As for choice of airport, it just depends where you're going on the Island.
 
jspilot said:
KHTO( East Hampton) is not well liked by many around these parts. They just opened up a tower and the field is insanely busy during the peak seasons. I've never flown in but the airport does not have a great reputation.
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My (limited) experience with KHTO is that they are aggressive about applying the landing fee. I just stopped for a bio-break and bought some fuel and they charged me. It was a fall day and the summer traffic had eased to a sleepy level.

In addition, the area is super sensitive to noise. Mostly from helicopters and business jets, but still be aware of noise abatement procedures.
 
Thank you all for the responses. Answering a couple of questions at once.

We would expect to be travelling on the ground a bit (yes I will need a car) visiting friends and family. I'm originally from Brooklyn and so I am generally familiar with the area and know that either of the ones I mentioned would be acceptable from a location standpoint. The trip 20 years ago? That was the week before we moved to Colorado and the purpose of the trip was the same. That time it was into ISP - flew in and out of there 3 times, but as I said, it was quite a while back.

I've been looking at AirNav and New York Jet seems to get decent reviews and their fuel prices seem substantially lower than the others I've looked at.

BTW, follow-up question (I'm sure there will be others as the time for the trip gets closer). The sites that show common IFR routings suggest in a flight from the south, I can anticipate routing toward JFK with vectoring to wherever once in their influence zone. Pretty accurate in reality?
 
jspilot said:
I fly from LI and know lots of LI airports.

KISP is a great airport with plenty of FBO options and is never really that crowded. It can get busy but nothing terrible.

KFRG is super crowded and located closer to the city. It would be a very long drive out east from FRF

Brookhaven KHWV has an FBO and is a smaller non towered airport about 20 miles east of Islip KISP. Easy in and out but not many of the amenities of KISP

KFOK( Gabreski) is a smallish towered class D airport that has huge runways and is never very busy and is located about 20 miles west of the Hamptons. They also have an FBO and plenty of parking on the ramps even during the busier summer months.

KHTO( East Hampton) is not well liked by many around these parts. They just opened up a tower and the field is insanely busy during the peak seasons. I've never flown in but the airport does not have a great reputation.

KMTP( Montauk) is a beautiful airport with a crazy approach over dunes in one direction and over sailboat masts from the opposite. I would never fly into the airport unless the weather is calm as the runway is very small. I know it is very expensive to park there and parking is limited but it's a nice option if you want to visit Montauk.

Hope this helps!
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Concur with all this. All good options, probably chose based on where you want to be based. Long Island is after all rather long.

KHTO has a bad reputation both with residents (who mostly seem to want it bulldozed) and pilots (who all have or know of horror stories dealing with that airport. Had a friend, who didn't bother to check the landing fee, decide to do some touch and goes and ended up getting like a ~$180 landing fee bill in the mail. I think in the end he didn't end up paying, but it's craziness like that that causes many pilots to just not bother with the place.
 
Mark,

Drop me a line if you are going to be down the Jersey Shore.
 
iRyan said:
Mark,

Drop me a line if you are going to be down the Jersey Shore.
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I will, but I am much more likely to take a side trip up to Westchester or Massachusetts if we take one at all.

Which reminds me - I'm thinking of maybe doing the Hudson route ( grew up about 2 NM east of VZ). Any big issues getting there from LI? Better entry point from there at VZ or Alpine Tower?
 
midlifeflyer said:
I will, but I am much more likely to take a side trip up to Westchester or Massachusetts if we take one at all.

Which reminds me - I'm thinking of maybe doing the Hudson route ( grew up about 2 NM east of VZ). Any big issues getting there from LI? Better entry point from there at VZ or Alpine Tower?
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From LI I like to fly along the beach at or below 500' and then head north up the Hudson
 
momalley said:
I just did that flight for the 3rd time this past Sunday. Left FRG, along the beach, up the Hudson to Poughkeepsie then back to FRG
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Ever do it the opposite way? I can almost see it at the end of my trip, leaving ISP northwest bound, entering at Alpine Tower at the north end and just continuing home after exiting at VZ.

But it looks like it would be more fun to do it as a side trip rather than at the beginning or end of a 3 hour flight.
 
Certainly possible. Get Bravo clearance if you can. There's a whole online training thing somewhere on the FAA website that tells you everything you need to know about the Hudson SFRA.
 
If you are coming from the south, you will most likely get routed over Kennedy then vectors to destination. Sometimes they give you vectors before Kennedy. NY Approach is fantastic, professional, and always accommodating. If you decide to go to FRG try to arrive before 9am or after 5pm. It gets crazy, especially on the weekends.
 
jordane93 said:
If you are coming from the south, you will most likely get routed over Kennedy then vectors to destination. Sometimes they give you vectors before Kennedy. NY Approach is fantastic, professional, and always accommodating.
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Thanks. That's kid of what I would have expected.
If you decide to go to FRG try to arrive before 9am or after 5pm. It gets crazy, especially on the weekends
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It's looking more and more like KISP. Location, prices, etc all look pretty good. Besides, my first solo IFR flight was into there so there's a nostalgia factor as well.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Thanks. That's kid of what I would have expected.

It's looking more and more like KISP. Location, prices, etc all look pretty good. Besides, my first solo IFR flight was into there so there's a nostalgia factor as well.
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ISP is also a good choice. Pretty easy to get in and out.
 
KFOK-we have plenty of parking, rental cars and an incredible restaurant! It's a gem of an airport and it's located in the FIRST Hampton (Westhampton Beach) so there's no traffic nonsense and plenty of hotels within 10 minutes. We have gorgeous oceans beaches, wineries, great shopping and everything else you could ever want.
 
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