PIREP requested: Ramona (RNM) CA

Timbeck2

Timbeck2

Final Approach
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Timbeck2
Looks like some flights are in my future to visit my other daughter who is moving to Northish San Diego. Never been there and will be remaining overnight.
 
He probably wants to know about the airport in Ramona, CA with the identifier RNM, and probably wants to know anything anyone knows about it, from the title.
 
Some airports here in Arizona I would not recommend to others for one reason or another. I don’t know anything other than what can be gleaned from sky vector and Air Nav. Fees? FBO? How secure is the airport? Bad times to fly into because of student traffic. That kind of stuff
 
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Timbeck2 said:
Some airports here in Arizona I would not recommend to others for one reason or another. I don’t know anything other than what can be gleaned from sky vector and Air Nav. Fees? FBO? How secure is the airport? That kind of stuff
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Ok. I've flown there a lot, but it's been awhile. Didn't stay, just did practice approaches and stuff. Paging @Tantalum , whadda ya know bout' ground facilities at Ranoma?
 
Depending on were the OP is going Ramona may not be that close.. some place like F70, CRQ, might be more appropriate. But if RNM is the best option then it's a fine little airport. The controllers get sensitive when there are more than a few planes in the pattern as it's a common spot for practice approaches and touch and goes. I've never spent the night there, but there's decent infrastructure although not as built out as SEE, MYF, or CRQ. Our club will occasionally have some planes parked there. The main "FBO" is an older building with decent staff. One of San Diego's favorite mechanics is based there, San Diego fire planes also usually have some cool hardware on the ramp

There's some terrain to the south and north-ish but approaching from the straight west or east is pretty straightforward
 
She lives near Del Mar but more inland. Based on her map she sent, Ramona was closest to her. South of Encinitas but North of Miramar. Rancho Penesquitos

appreciate the words
 
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I edited as it seems to be a town when I thought it was a development. Rancho Penesquitos
 
Depending on the time of year Ramona can be quite busy with fire fighting operations since it's a CalFire air attack base. Ground transportation might not be as easy to arrange as SEE (Gillespie) or MYF (Montgomery Gibbs). I would rule out CRQ (Palomar) due to single runway and lots of traffic including corporate jets so delays plus highest fuel prices. The drive time from RNM, SEE, and MYF should be similar, again depending on time of day. MYF is the busiest, and is impacted the most by the marine layer. There is a lot of student traffic during the weekdays, especially at MYF and SEE, and a lot of practice instrument approaches at all three. I wouldn't worry about security at any of them.
 
^and to that point, F70 might not be a bad option. Not *AS* busy, big airport with loads of parking, near infrastructure, good food on the field, and usually has good wx. But it's basically Temecula so you're looking at a solid 45 minutes to any of the more typical San Diego areas
 
Tantalum said:
Depending on were the OP is going Ramona may not be that close.. some place like F70, CRQ, might be more appropriate. But if RNM is the best option then it's a fine little airport. The controllers get sensitive when there are more than a few planes in the pattern as it's a common spot for practice approaches and touch and goes. I've never spent the night there, but there's decent infrastructure although not as built out as SEE, MYF, or CRQ. Our club will occasionally have some planes parked there. The main "FBO" is an older building with decent staff. One of San Diego's favorite mechanics is based there, San Diego fire planes also usually have some cool hardware on the ramp

There's some terrain to the south and north-ish but approaching from the straight west or east is pretty straightforward
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Speaking of sensitive Controllers, is 'She' still there?
 
My daughter would pick me up so ground transportation not necessary as isn’t food. Just trying to find the closest airport to her home
 
Timbeck2 said:
My daughter would pick me up so ground transportation not necessary as isn’t food. Just trying to find the closest airport to her home
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Quickest and/or less tedious might be a better way to look at it. Montgomery might be mostly Freeway. Ramona is going to have a lot of Stop Signs and Traffic Lights.
 
Timbeck2 said:
My daughter would pick me up so ground transportation not necessary as isn’t food. Just trying to find the closest airport to her home
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Use a map program for driving directions from each airport to her address to see the closest time wise. Of course time of day matters as far as traffic is concerned, the major roads jam up at rush hour.
 
Timbeck2 said:
My daughter would pick me up so ground transportation not necessary as isn’t food. Just trying to find the closest airport to her home
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I've lived in Penasquitos and Poway (just to the east of PQ). I trained at KMYF (Montgomery) and after my private had a hangar at KRNM (Ramona). For me, RNM has a number of advantages over other SoCal options.

It's usually the first VFR airport in the area when the marine layer moves out (and last when it moves in).

Very rarely do you have to wait at the hold short line (KMYF can be very busy at times).

KSEE and KMYF are nestled between KSAN and Miramar bravo airspace. That funnels VFR traffic into a relatively narrow corridor that gets pretty congested.

Driving time from KMYF to Penaquitos (PQ) and Ramona to PQ was similar in my experience. HWY 67 from RNM to PQ gets very congested during rush hours due to lot's of people living in Ramona and working in San Diego.

I15 from KMYF to PQ gets congested during rush hour. My opinion was the "rush hour" was a bit longer from KMYF to PQ than KRNM to PQ. If there's an accident on either route traffic is horrible. Luckily that didn't happen often.

Chuck Hall's P51 was based at KRNM when I was there. Was cool to see it fly. Lot's of other warbirds when I was there.

The fire fighting tankers are there. They are pretty efficient and never caused any issues or delays for me.
 
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