In article ,
OP wrote:

On 19 May 2005 06:51:33 -0700, "xxx" wrote:

It looks like I'll be moving to the San Fernando Valley.

I don't know exactly where I'll be living but I expect to
have reasonable access to VNY, WHB and BUR. I'm looking for
recommendations, postive or negative, for airports, FBO's,
clubs, etc. I'm a private pilot with no professional aviation
aspirations.

All three are flyable for GA aircraft, but Burbank has a lot of
scheduled commercial activity that can delay departures and
arrivals.

Van Nuys has some jet traffic, but it's all corporate or privately
owned. Most of the traffic is piston engine GA.

Whiteman is all piston engine (I think) GA traffic.

If you are IFR rated, VNY is probably your best choice.

I wouldn't list an instrument rating as a prerequisite for flying out of
VNY, just a willingness to put up with being around a lot of jets. All
the Hollywood celebs fly out of VNY (or SMO) so we see a lot of
Gulfstreams there. VNY is the busiest GA airport in the world and it
can be a little intimidating at first.

If you want something a little more low key WHP is definitely the best
bet. A step up from there but more of a shlep is EMT. There are at
least two FBOs there that have a good selection of low-end Cessnas.
It's not quite as sleepy as WHP, but not nearly as hairy as VNY.

Burbank, ironically, is actually less busy than VNY because there's very
little GA on the field. There was a flight school with some smaller
pistons in the southwest corner a while back, but I can't remember what
they are called. Other than that, and the odd training flight that
comes in just for the novelty of landing at a Class C airport, BUR all
jets all the time.

We've also got SMO and Torrance across the hills. SMO is definitely
worth checking out. It has one of the best on-field restaurants
anywhere (the Typhoon -- poor choice of name for an on-field restaurant
IMHO). I've never been to Torrance.

rg