My brother is returning from deployment and soon after will be relocating from Lemoore to San Diego. He was looking for some info on GA friendly airfields to keep his personal plane and asked about Brown and Montgomery. Anyone have some insight to offer or other preferred options? Thanks in advance. Matt

While it is in the north part of San Diego County, I like Oceanside airport. Small, very laid back and out of all the controlled traffic areas. It also is very close to the I-5, so access is easy.

Blurb:

The City of Oceanside and its residents welcome you!

Located on 43-acres in the San Diego County area of California, Oceanside Municipal Airport is a general aviation airport featuring one runway and fuel services.


Also, Tsunami Skydivers of Oceanside has a drop zone at the Airport and offers great rates!!
Oceanside Municipal Airport is assigned OKB by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Airport's identifier
is KOKB by International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO), and is assigned OCN by the International Air
Transport Association (IATA). The FAA identifier OCN belongs to the Oceanside VORTAC 4 miles
west-northwest of the Oceanside Airport.

Field Elevation: 28 ft
Pattern Alititude: 1028 ft
From VOR/DME
OCN 115.3 096deg 3.6mi
Lat: N33-13.08
Long: W117-21.09

Fuel: Self-service Chevron 100LL AvGas is available.

Oceanside Municipal Airport provides tie-downs, hangars, transient parking, restrooms, coffee, and snacks daily
from 9 am-5 pm.

Overnight transient tie-down fees of $5 per night apply.

Monthly tie-down rentals available at $125 per month. For monthly hangar availablility and rents, please call the main airport office at 760-901-4260.

Oceanside Municipal Airport is operated and managed by Airport Property Ventures. For contact information, please visit www.AirportPropertyVentures.com.

I like Oceanside but I hate I-5 and it's traffic problems.. I'm hangared at Gillespie which is close to where I live in El Cajon and about 20 minutes from downtown SD... can't tell you about outside tie down rates cause I have a hangar which I pay $360.00 a month for.. Brown is right at the border and I don't know hangar rentals there but they have been lower in the past... MOntgomery rates are fairly high from what I understand as it is bordered on the west by hwy 15 and is right in the middle of the city.. As I see it Gillespie or Brown are the best bets for price and location.. I wouldn't even try Montgomery..there is one other possibility but it's at least a 45 minute drive from downtown SD and that's Ramona... Tower is gonna be closed cause of cutbacks but they don't need a tower there anyway...look up Gillespie Pilots Assoc.... I think they have a web site if I'm not mistaken... if not then they have a monthly meeting at the terminal with coffee and donuts.. hope this helps..

Montgomery is rather expensive. When I checked the best deal on a hangar was $550 a month. It has a lot of corporate traffic as well and is sandwiched between Lindbergh Field and MCAS Miramar. They do have the 94th Aero Squadron though that does an excellent brunch. I found a guy there to do my annual for a year and then he opened up a shop in Ramona.

I kept my plane in Ramona. It was a long drive from San Diego (45 min) but it was away from the busy parts of the area and the airport was pretty awesome. Its not every day one gets to share the pattern with a Mustang and a Corsair. During fire season it gets busy since CALFIRE bases there stuff there.

Brown would be a good choice. Hangar rent was <$400 but the hangars were ratty. Being that close to the border limits your direction of travel a little but. There is another strip to the NE that does a lot of parachute stuff so checking NOTAMS is pretty important.

Gillespie would be a good choice too. Although it gets really busy at times. It seems like the few times I went there I was in the pattern with 6 aircraft and a helo during low work on a taxiway. But it is probably the better choice.

The last time I looked at Oceanside they had a hangar waiting list that hadn't moved in ten years.

Oceanside is pretty handy, as is Gillespie, and Ramona no doubt has the most cool factor, but if your bro likes to fly a lot he might also consider Fallbrook. Unlike the others, that are either at sea level on the ocean, or in a valley bottom, Fallbrook is on a mesa less than 10 miles away from Oceanside, but always clear long before, and long after Oceanside is IMC. I routinely fly there early in the am or leave late in the evening when the others are socked in with coastal scuz... This isn't an occasional occurrence , it's a way of life on the coast. If vfr departures and arrivals are of any importance this is probably a worthy consideration...

On another note, Oceanside requests no touch and goes... Now I am not in a point in my flying life that touch and goes mean much to me BUT IMHO when a community doesn't want touch and goes or points you in a certain direction for arrivals and departures, it is a pretty good indicator of just how welcome aviation is in that community ....
Take care, Rob

again...

Depends on what kind of flying he wants to do.

Any of the airports in the main city are not going to be nearly as Cub friendly as Ramona, Fallbrook, Oceanside, etc.. Gillespie is OK, but there is jet traffic there and it does get crowded. Palomar to the north is mostly bizjets for the "North County" jet set.

Where in SD will he be living, what kind of airplane (Cub, EXP Lancair, C210), what kind of pilot (ex-mil, IFR civilian, BCP no radio farm boy), what kind of normal mission ($100 burger, business XC, low and slow sight-seeing, air-camping)???

Thanks for all the responses. I have sent them on. He is current military and deployed, so hasn't even figured out yet where he will be living. Why he asked for help sorting things out as will be hectic when returns. Flies a four seater Cessna and I'm sure soon will be looking for nearby flying and camping destinations. Thanks again!

listen I live at Gillespie and it isn't all that busy.. Silver state helicopters is finally gone so they don't shut down 17 35 for helicopters to hover for hours at a time... Good riddance... Yes there are a couple jets based here but there's no commercial jet service like Palomar.. most I usually see in the pattern are 3 or 4 students using either 27 right or left.. I've never been delayed for takeoff after doing my runup....and the part about oceanside not being liked is true.. a bunch of airplane haters tried to get the airport closed a couple years ago but we all got behind it and haven't heard a thing since...that's when the no touch and go thing got started there...