Gillespie Field, San Diego

[Glasair470]

If anyone is familiar with the field, I would like to park the plane
(Glasair) wherever the transient county parking is located and get to
the Trolley Orange Line on the road outside the airport to catch a
ride downtown to the Convention Center. Is it walkable from the field
to the trolley station?

[Steve Schneider]

Glasair470 wrote:
> If anyone is familiar with the field, I would like to park the plane
> (Glasair) wherever the transient county parking is located and get to
> the Trolley Orange Line on the road outside the airport to catch a
> ride downtown to the Convention Center. Is it walkable from the field
> to the trolley station?
>


I belonged to a couple of partnerships based at SEE in years
past. The normal transient parking puts you on the ramp just
south east of the 35/27L intersection, which is the wrong
side of the field for walking to the trolley station. There
is a cafe located at the base of the tower, just south west of
the 35/9R intersection. From the base of the tower it is not
a long walk to the trolley station, perhaps a half mile (I've
walked it on one occasion). If you walk outside the airport
from the regular transient parking on the east side, you will
add about 2 miles to the walk.

Transients occasionally can negotiate with ground control to
park at the base of the tower (limited space), normally for
short visits to the cafe. So you might be able to negotiate
parking there for a longer period, though I doubt they'd let
you park overnight there. Also, the re-entry code was always
posted for transient pilots at the normal transient ramp exit
gates -- if you park at the base of the tower, you'd need to
return while the cafe and/or attached FBO is still open to get
back onto the ramp since they don't have the re-entry code
posted for transients (and the code is different than on the
other side of the field).

Using a handheld radio on ground control, I have successfully
requested pedestrian and auto crossings of 17/35 (granted, it
was a few years ago) - so you might be able to do the same if
you must park on the east side, which would shorten your walk
considerably.

Steve