Marty Ross wrote:

Any leads, tips or general discussion of GA from people living in/around
Manhattan would be great!

Marty:

I did all all my real flight training at CDW. I've checked out, and rented,
at FBOs at Lincoln Park and Teterboro as well. I'm a member of the club to
which you've referred at both Caldwell and Linden (The Paramus Flying Club,
at http://flyingclub.org/).

Up until almost a year ago, the club was based at Teterboro. The decision
was made to base aircraft at both Linden and Caldwell precisely because
Linden was more convenient for NYCers w/o cars (while Caldwell is more
convenient to most members in NJ).

It is possible to get to CDW w/o a car, but it apparently involves some
effort.

However, as I'm one of those NJ-ers with a car, I cannot speak from personal
experience. Why not join us for one of our monthly meetings, and ask
there? Alternatively, I can put you in touch with some of the car-less NYC
members via email (which may be more immediate, but not as much fun).

Depending upon where you are in NYC, you should also consider HPN. There's
a club (Westchester Flying Club, at http://wtc-hpn.org/ there that
appears to be quite nice, and it may be more convenient for you than Linden
or Caldwell via mass transit.

I know that there's at least one other club at Linden, but I don't know the
details (or even recall the name right now..."Richmond", perhaps?).

Since you posted to homebuilt...if your interests are in that direction,
there's an EAA chapter (501, at http://eaa501.org/)at Lincoln Park that
has a number of people building their own aircraft. Caldwell also has a
chapter(73, at http://eaa73.org/), but I don't know much about it (even
though I do know Larry).

For a more general view of aviation in the area, you can also join us for
dinner at a MAPA (Mid-Atlantic Pilot's Association, at
http://midatlanticpilots.com/).

Welcome to the area!

- Andrew