San Francisco flying clubs / rentals

Hi guys. I'm new to the Bay Area and looking forward to getting up in
the air.

I'm a private pilot, looking to rent 172s, 182s or equivalents,
possibly building up to slightly bigger things at some point. I'll
probably only fly 5-7 hours a month or so. I'll be living in the city.

Also, I'd like to step up the hours for a month or two while I do my
instrument rating.

I'd love to hear from anyone who lives in the area and has advice on a
few things:

1. The best clubs or schools to rent from. Airport proximity to the
city is important to me.
2. Recommended instructors for an IFR rating.
3. What are conditions generally like for VFR flying in the Bay Area?
4. How's the city tour? I lived in NYC for a while and loved it there.

Finally, if anyone wants to share costs on a short city tour / local
area flight to get me oriented, that would be cool. I'd try to bring
my girlfriend if a 4-seater, so costs would likely be split 3 ways.

Thanks in advance guys,

Tom
PP-ASEL

In article ,
Tom wrote:
Hi guys. I'm new to the Bay Area and looking forward to getting up in
the air.
[...]

I'd love to hear from anyone who lives in the area and has advice on a
few things:

1. The best clubs or schools to rent from. Airport proximity to the
city is important to me.

From the city, Oakland or San Carlos would be closest/easiest.
Oakland is accessablsh from public transit (BART/shuttle bus).
San Carlos would be tougher to get to without a car. Others can
fill you in on the clubs at those airports. I fly out of Advantage
and Shoreline at PAO.

2. Recommended instructors for an IFR rating.

I'm working on my instrument with Steve Philipson at PAO. Not
sure if he works out of SQL, contact info is on the webpage.

http://home.earthlink.net/~shp1/instrumentrating.html

3. What are conditions generally like for VFR flying in the Bay Area?

There is often morning fog in the summer, but great VFR the rest
of the day. During the winter, even when it is cloudy, the ceilings
are often high enough to fly VFR. The fog is usually worst around
SF/Oakland, and less further away from the Golden Gate.

4. How's the city tour? I lived in NYC for a while and loved it there.

The Bay Tour (as the locals call it) is incredible. ATC is very
accommodating.

http://www.clear-prop.org/aerialphotos.html has tons of shots from
various Bay Tours I've done.

Finally, if anyone wants to share costs on a short city tour / local
area flight to get me oriented, that would be cool. I'd try to bring
my girlfriend if a 4-seater, so costs would likely be split 3 ways.

I fly out of PAO, so if you can make it down here, I'll take you
up. Drop me an email and we can work out details.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

Tom writes:
I'd love to hear from anyone who lives in the area and has advice on a
few things:

1. The best clubs or schools to rent from. Airport proximity to the
city is important to me.

I don't know enough to debate who is "best", but I rent from the
undisputed "biggest", West Valley Flying club (www.wvfc.org). They
rent planes out of four airports in the area (Palo Alto, San Carlos,
Hayward, and South County). West Valley has lots of instructors, lots
of planes, and nice insurance coverage. Their downsides: waaaaay to
much bureaucracy (large clubitis), and relatively high rental prices.

There are tons of airports in the Bay area -- in adition to the ones
listed above, there is also SFO (big planes only, unless you like
steep landing fees, Oakland (never flown there, so I can't really say
what it is like), San Jose (free for landing, but the FBOs have a
hefty ramp fee, I hear...), Half Moon Bay (beautiful location on the
oceanfront) and Reid Hillview (on the far side of San Jose). Sadly
there is no GA airport super convenient to downtown SF, but all of
these airports are near major highways. (I live in Mountain View, so
PAO is pretty darn close.)

A good guide to KPAO can be found he
http://www.dr-amy.com/rich/flying/kpao.html

2. Recommended instructors for an IFR rating.

There are loads of instructors around. West Valley appears to
currently have 80 or 90 instructors listed. I have not yet started my
IFR, so I can't say who is particularly good or bad for that training.

3. What are conditions generally like for VFR flying in the Bay Area?

From my limited experience: it depends on where you are flying. South
bay: summer is clear skies getting a bit breezy mid-afternoon, with no
rain ever. Winter days are either overcast and rainy or clear (the
closer you get to mid-winter the more overcast days you get). San
Francisco airport: fog, year round (at least, fog every time I want to
fly up there, it seems. :-) ). The Pacific coast: overcast more days
than you like in the summer (often burns off mid-afternoon), easier to
get out to in the fall/winter. Inland/central valley: beautiful and
clear most of the year, gets some clouds and rain in winter.

4. How's the city tour? I lived in NYC for a while and loved it there.

The Bay Tour is beautiful. I would advise taking an instructor (or
other pilot familiar with it) along for your first try, as dealing
with the complex airspace and the local procedures can be tricky --
may as well make it easier for you. Also be aware that every plane in
the area wants to circle Alcatraz and fly over the Golden Gate Bridge
-- so keep a sharp eye out when near there. Before launching, check
weather at your airport, SFO, OAK, SJC, Salinas _and_ Half Moon Bay --
you may find dramatically different weather at all of those airports
at any given time...

Chris

Tom,

1. The best clubs or schools to rent from. Airport proximity to the
city is important to me.

Depending on which side of the city you're at, San Carlos and Palo Alto
are the interesting ones to the south, Gnoss is pretty much the only
option to the north. Oakland and Hayward are on the East Bay. At San
Carlos, Diamond Aviation (?) has an interesting selection of rentals - a
lot of new and cool stuff. At KPAO, for long term membership, West
Valley Flying Club is much worth looking into.
Since we're talking Silicon Valley here, all the airports and clubs/FBOs
have nice websites, so some googling is in order.

2. Recommended instructors for an IFR rating.

If he is still in the area and in the business, Charles Harris. The man
is priceless! Tought me crosswind landings in a way that finally made me
see the light. See http://www.campbells.org/Airplanes/Diary/toc.html for
a taste.

3. What are conditions generally like for VFR flying in the Bay Area?

You have to deal with the marine fog layer often, so the IR is a really
good idea. You'll want to get mountain flying instruction, since
hot&high conditions are close.
Other than that, the scenery and the amount of options and variety of
areas in close proximity are nothing short of sensational. You can be in
the high desert in an hour or two, or in Alpine mountains, or on a
gorgous beach or in a picturesque village or in a spectacular city.
Nowhere else in the US have I found that many 100-$-burger destinations
within easy reach. And then there are the Napa and Sonoma valleys.

4. How's the city tour? I lived in NYC for a while and loved it there.

The "Bay Tour" needs some advice from locals on ATC procedures, but it
is real nice. A good way to do it from the southern fields is to combine
it with lunch at Napa, Santa Rosa, Sonoma or Lampson/Clear Lake.

Yes, I am writing this from Hamburg, Germany ;-)

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Concord is another good option, its about 30 miles from SF, you could
also try Livermore which I am guessing is about 40 miles to the east
and has a very well maintained FBO called attitude aviation. Hayward
is good but has a low pattern altitude in a densely populated area
that makes me nervous. I found Concord to be the best overall because
it has 2 sets of parallel runways with lots of wide open spaces to the
north so an engine failure feels less threatening. Livermore can get
hit by significant crosswinds in the afternoon because it only has one
east-west runway. However I would say based on personal experience
that I found the airplanes maintained by attitude aviation in
Livermore to be in really good, clean condition.

On Dec 21, 8:13 pm, Tom wrote:
Hi guys. I'm new to the Bay Area and looking forward to getting up in
the air.

I'm a private pilot, looking to rent 172s, 182s or equivalents,
possibly building up to slightly bigger things at some point. I'll
probably only fly 5-7 hours a month or so. I'll be living in the city.

Also, I'd like to step up the hours for a month or two while I do my
instrument rating.

I'd love to hear from anyone who lives in the area and has advice on a
few things:

1. The best clubs or schools to rent from. Airport proximity to the
city is important to me.
2. Recommended instructors for an IFR rating.
3. What are conditions generally like for VFR flying in the Bay Area?
4. How's the city tour? I lived in NYC for a while and loved it there.

Finally, if anyone wants to share costs on a short city tour / local
area flight to get me oriented, that would be cool. I'd try to bring
my girlfriend if a 4-seater, so costs would likely be split 3 ways.

Thanks in advance guys,

Tom
PP-ASEL