SFO alternatives??

N747JB

N747JB

Final Approach
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John
We're going to San Francisco in July, I'd love to take some extra time and fly out with the family. Any good alternatives to SFO that are GA friendly?
I'll probably end up on Delta, but just in case, I'd like to figure out what's close to the city. ;)
 
Seconded - Oakland is very easy to fly into GA, the separate runways mean that you don't have to mix it up with the jets at all. There's also decent-ish transport connections to BART.
 
San Carlos(SQL) small but fairly friendly. Hertz I think does rental cars or take a taxi to Caltrain into the city. Probably cheaper fuel and tiedown fees than Oakland. A bit more marginal on weather sometimes than Oakland.
 
Oakland, Hayward, & Concord will be your best bets, all have pretty easy access to BART, in someways Hayward is the easiest since a bus line runs right to it. I try to avoid renting a a car unless I'm going to head out of town to Napa, but I'd rather fly up anyway. If you do rent a car, make sure your hotel has parking, parking in SF can get real expensive, more than for the plane lol.
 
chartbundle said:
San Carlos(SQL) small but fairly friendly. Hertz I think does rental cars or take a taxi to Caltrain into the city. Probably cheaper fuel and tiedown fees than Oakland. A bit more marginal on weather sometimes than Oakland.
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Actually, IMHO i think SQL probably has the least amount of overcast and fog in the entire bay area due to its location and local geography. The east bay tends to get the fog first as the fog shoots eastward into Berkeley then splits north and/or south covering oakland, hayward and on south.

I have often returned at night over the east bay under a solid overcast with SQL nicely clear.
 
jchang10 said:
Actually, IMHO i think SQL probably has the least amount of overcast and fog in the entire bay area due to its location and local geography. The east bay tends to get the fog first as the fog shoots eastward into Berkeley then splits north and/or south covering oakland, hayward and on south.

I have often returned at night over the east bay under a solid overcast with SQL nicely clear.
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You need to get around more. Yes, the east bay can cloud up early, but SQL is very often IFR when Palo Alto and especially Reid and San Jose are clear. Concord and Livermore are also much better.

You go to San Carlos to visit the air museum, not to beat the weather. The only reliably worse airport is Half Moon Bay.

And if you're under the overcast, Oakland is clear enough.
 
MAKG1 said:
You need to get around more. Yes, the east bay can cloud up early, but SQL is very often IFR when Palo Alto and especially Reid and San Jose are clear. Concord and Livermore are also much better.

You go to San Carlos to visit the air museum, not to beat the weather. The only reliably worse airport is Half Moon Bay.

And if you're under the overcast, Oakland is clear enough.
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Excuse me? I take it you arent even in the bay area.

Case in point:
KOAK 030553Z 24010KT 10SM FEW015 SCT100
KHWD 030635Z AUTO 09004KT 10SM BKN026
KSQL 030635Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR

The internet, you get what you pay for.
 
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Who'd imagined the standard POA cockfighting over SF area airports? Anyway PAO is your best bet with SQL your 2nd, OAK as 3rd (because it requires BART and a distant walk). BTW; every time into CCR has only brought trouble to meet BART. Concord Buchanan is a distant 4th.
 
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jchang10 said:
Excuse me? I take it you arent even in the bay area.

Case in point:
KOAK 030553Z 24010KT 10SM FEW015 SCT100
KHWD 030635Z AUTO 09004KT 10SM BKN026
KSQL 030635Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR

The internet, you get what you pay for.
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If you say so...all of those are flyable VFR with no difficulty.

And middle of the night METARs are hardly relevant to a sightseeing trip.
 
jchang10 said:
...I take it you arent even in the bay area...
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Actually, he is.

Characterizing the Bay Area's microclimates can be tricky, because there are so many of them. I too have noticed that Oakland can be more cloudy than the upper Peninsula at times, but the South Bay almost always clears up sooner and clouds up later than the Peninsula.
 
KCCR has one major advantage over all these - even when the bay area is foggy, 99% of the time KCCR isn't. Even when it's "covered", it is usually at 2-3K feet, and it is entirely feasible to simply fly north and east underneath the clouds for a few minutes until they end and then climb.
 
onwards said:
KCCR has one major advantage over all these - even when the bay area is foggy, 99% of the time KCCR isn't. Even when it's "covered", it is usually at 2-3K feet, and it is entirely feasible to simply fly north and east underneath the clouds for a few minutes until they end and then climb.
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This is true.

It's a lllloooonnnngggg BART ride to the City, though.

Once upon a time you could get airliner service there (BAe 146), but it's been years since AirCal folded.

I'll suggest that if the weather sucks, it makes little difference where the airline flight goes (though SFO backs up a lot worse than SJC or OAK), and the sightseeing trip ain't happening.

The FIRST place in the region to fog up is the Golden Gate Bridge, and if there is any marine layer at all, at least half the City will be obscured. So, finding the clearer airport is not really useful.

Mt. Diablo is an interesting flight for a local (it has an inop lighted beacon on top, that used to be part of the original transcontinental air mail route that terminated at Oakland), but for a visitor, it doesn't hold a candle to a Bay Tour.
 
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I think PAO or SQL are a bit short for a Conquest, no?

Well, I guess he does have beta...
 
I'd add another vote for KOAK. For someone out of town and not familiar with the area (such as myself), it is really easy to get in and out of. I usually stop at Kaiser Air, get a free ride to the BART station and you're downtown San Francisco in 10-15 minutes. They're friendly to GA and the folks in the tower are also very friendly and helpful.
 
dans2992 said:
I think PAO or SQL are a bit short for a Conquest, no?

Well, I guess he does have beta...
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There isn't any extra runway at either airport, is there? :D I prefer 3500 ft, but 2600 is doable, just not at gross. :D
 
Concorde said:
Where is Kimberly ?
:idea:
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Kimberly does not have enough money or guts to even have landed at any SFO alternatives such as Palo Alto, San Carlos, Concord, Livermore, etc.

Therefore Kimberly should probably not comment.

I have landed at Oakland, but only in my primary training. Palo Alto, but only as a backseat passenger on a commercial student training flight, San Carlos and Livermore but only partially (and not as PIC but I might have helped with the landing).

Concord, never.
 
Well, the wife won this battle, so we'll be riding the bus, I mean Delta.:rolleyes:
 
N747JB said:
Well, the wife won this battle, so we'll be riding the bus, I mean Delta.:rolleyes:
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Maybe you can buddy up to the captain so he'll let you ride jump seat and let you make the call for a Bravo clearance in to SFO.
 
Think I'll piggy back on this thread rather than start my own, since the OP appears to be done with it (I think.) :D

So - I have some business that requires my presence in Scotts Valley, CA from June 16 to 18. My plan: if the 7 day forecast on the 13th doesn't look good for flying myself, I'll purchase a commercial ticket to fly from Eugene, OR (KEUG) or Portland (PDX) to San Jose (SJC) on June 15 and return the 19.

Otherwise I'll try to fly myself from 77S to either KWVI or RHV on the same dates. Those two appear to be the best options that have rental cars and aren't too far from Scotts Valley.

The only quandary I have is whether I should remove KWVI (slightly preferred) from my list of possible destinations since even if I have no problem getting into it on the afternoon of the 15th, fog may prevent or delay a departure till afternoon from it on the 19th. I would expect a lot less unpredictability in any forecast for RHV. But it is a longer drive to Scotts Valley. I have no experience flying into any of the airports in the Monterey or San Fransisco bay areas. We lived for 6 years in Aptos, so I'm somewhat familiar with fogalongthecoast and that it normally cleared by noon where we lived, but just unpredictable enough there that I have no idea about when/if KWVI would clear.

Any reasonable alternative airports I should consider besides KWVI and RHV?
 
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I don't remember whether you are IFR-qualified. If you are not, then you should not count on departing from WVI in the morning. RHV is a much better bet in that regard, though still not guaranteed.
 
If traffic is light, RHV is a little less than an hours drive. Nice Air is a great FBO and half the time they pull the rental car right up to the plane for you. They have their own cars (Corollas) and their pricing is good for both gas and rental car.
 
The owner of Nice Air was very accommodating when we were there.
 
Palmpilot said:
I don't remember whether you are IFR-qualified. If you are not, then you should not count on departing from WVI in the morning. RHV is a much better bet in that regard, though still not guaranteed.
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VFR only.

John221us said:
If traffic is light, RHV is a little less than an hours drive. Nice Air is a great FBO and half the time they pull the rental car right up to the plane for you. They have their own cars (Corollas) and their pricing is good for both gas and rental car.
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dans2992 said:
The owner of Nice Air was very accommodating when we were there.
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Thanks for the FBO suggestion - it answers the next question I would have asked!
 
WVI has Hertz onsite. There can be annoying traffic between Capitola and Santa Cruz, but it doesn't hold a candle to RHV. Traffic in that part of San Jose sucks beyond belief.

Scotts Valley used to have its very own airport. Now, half is a housing development and half is a city park, and the remaining 800 ft of runway is used only by RCers.

WVI is not HAF (nor is it MRY) and clear mornings in summer are not that unusual. Generally, either WVI or the Peninsula is IFR, but not both.
 
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John221us said:
If traffic is light, RHV is a little less than an hours drive. Nice Air is a great FBO and half the time they pull the rental car right up to the plane for you. They have their own cars (Corollas) and their pricing is good for both gas and rental car.
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dans2992 said:
The owner of Nice Air was very accommodating when we were there.
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Just FYI: I flew into RHV on Sunday and got a rental car and fuel from Nice Air. They were indeed nice and very helpful. Just flew home today. I appreciate the recommendation.
 
pericynthion said:
Seconded - Oakland is very easy to fly into GA, the separate runways mean that you don't have to mix it up with the jets at all. There's also decent-ish transport connections to BART.
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Thirded for Oakland. Would love to recommend Concord but have never found a decent way to get to/from BART.

Speaking of which, we have Bay Area Rapid Transit, and up at Tahoe they have Tahoe Area Rapid Transit. I tried to get them to call our little foothill bus line Foothill Area Rapid Transit, but no deal.

:yes:


Jim
 
Thanks, all for the great info! This non-IFR pilot is opting for Concord for one major reason: weather. I have contacted the FBO to find out about rides to and from BART.

I just don't want to get stuck at KOAK or not be able to fly my friends around due to fog layer.
 
VWGhiaBob said:
Thanks, all for the great info! This non-IFR pilot is opting for Concord for one major reason: weather. I have contacted the FBO to find out about rides to and from BART.

I just don't want to get stuck at KOAK or not be able to fly my friends around due to fog layer.
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Even if you have to take a cab to BART, it's only a few dollars. It is walkable, I've done it, but it's a hike.
 
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