Looking for Champaign/Urbana Ill pirep

[soarohio]

Flying in Saturday to visit family and looking at C16 or CMI. I assume C16 will be cheaper for an overnight stay. How are the tie downs at C16? How is uber and lyft in the area or do I need a rental car? Any idea of the fees at CMI? I will be calling both airports for info but would like to know any firsthand information to double check. Thanks for any info.

 

[keen9]

Uber and Lyft are great as you would expect in a college town. Unfortunately wx forced me to drive in my only trip since being an a/c owner. I had planned to go to KCMI for the full service/late hrs, and at the time not too much more $.

 

[Jim K]

I'm based at CMI, which unfortunately means I'm very little help to you lol. I tried for weeks to get some info on a hangar at Frasca, but couldn't get a call back; I think there is a guy there during the day but they don't seem to try very hard. I just opened my Uber app and got "no cars available", but I'm not sure if that's real or my app being goofy. The CSR's at Flightstar could probably answer that. There are taxi companies in town that I see running, or flightstar will coordinate a rental. The girls at the desk really are great. I think CMI is pretty normal for fees...around 10 bucks overnight unless you buy gas, which is stupidly expensive. Gas at c16 is better, but still high. KDNV has a self serve pump that is my usual fuel source.

 

[soarohio]

My niece is going to be the new investigative reporter for WCIA 3 News. She just moved to the area and is within a few miles of C16 so I’m sure that is where we will be landing. Thanks for the info I will let you know what we find when we return. Foreflight is show gas at KDNV at $3.98 so might stop there for a top off on the way home.

 

[soarohio]

Flew into C16 Frasca field on Saturday. The winds were gusting to over 30 but right down the grass runway. The grass and paved runways were reported in fair condition so I did a low pass over the airport and they looked ok from the air. Landed on the grass runway which was a little rough but nothing that would be dangerous to most aircraft. There were some tie down ropes on the ramp that were in very poor condition, so I used the tie down straps that are kept in the plane. Used the paved runway on Sunday, which was a little bumpy but perfectly safe. There were no problems getting an Uber when needed.

 

[keen9]

Thanks for the report. Maybe I'll try it out next time I plan for an Illini trip. C16 is a lot closer to everything.