Name that airport ….the answer.
Question:
Yes, ALL of the MANY people who responded on the net and with e-mail were 100% right…it was Frederick Maryland (FDK) home of AOPA! An accident is just waiting to happen at FDK. ARE YOU LISTENING FREDRICK!!!! ARE YOU LISTENING AOPA???
I purchased my plane at Fredrick Aviation and have had the ‘good fortune’ to land at FDK 2-3 times. Each of them has contributed greatly to my count of gray hair and has affirmed my stong heart! People taxi’ing in every which direction. I did have someone cut in front of me on final and THEN pull a 180 and backtaxi on the runway while I was on short final and ‘explaining’ my situation on Unicom in great detail!! Needless to say a go-around was in short coming and I resisted the temptation to spray silly-strings on and kick dirt on the tires of this wonder-pilot’s Tomahawk. Don’t get me wrong, I like the people at AOPA and Fredrick Aviation treated me right in getting my plane but whenever I need to be in the DC/MD area I always choose Leesburg. Much quieter and an FSS on the field. George Photakis Tobago N106F APSEL-IFR
Response:
| : An accident is just waiting to happen at FDK. | | : ARE YOU LISTENING FREDRICK!!!! | | : ARE YOU LISTENING AOPA??? | | Actually, Frederick isn’t anywhere near as bad as Gaithersburg in | my opinion. Sure it gets busy on sunny Saturdays but so do lots | of other fields in the area. Carroll County had a mid-air and | they have much less traffic. | | -Ron I disagree that GAI is as bad as FDK, and for the following reasons. And yes, although based at GAI, I use FDK almost as much. FDK has two runways, GAI has one. FDK has glider activity, GAI has none. FDK has a VOR and an ILS, GAI has only an (intermittant) NDB. There is much more IFR practice approach activity at FDK, and this (by definition) creates a potential conflict with normal pattern activity. FDK has an appreciably higher number of NORDO aircraft — its one of the few places around where you can rent taildraggers like a J-3, 7AC, or Taylorcraft, most of which are NORDO. All airports have their "lunatic fringe" — the bunch that seem to ignore proper procedures and courtesy. FDK just has a (significantly) larger opportunity for the sort of incidents reported in the original posting than most airports. BTW, I believe that GAI has a significantly larger traffic volume than FDK — it used to rank as the 2nd or 3rd busiest airport in Maryland, after BWI. * . * * COMM-ASEL (*)/ ( GAI ) * * C-172P N51078 o/ o Gaithersburg, Maryland * * *
Response:
Don’t get me wrong, I like the people at AOPA and Fredrick Aviation treated me right in getting my plane but whenever I need to be in the DC/MD area I always choose Leesburg. Much quieter and an FSS on the field.
Manassas seems to have a good operation, too; I’ve been in there a couple times. Pretty relaxed airport, and none of the chaos of Frederick. — Garner R. Miller, Commercial Pilot System Operator of The Macintosh Network BBS Palm Bay, FL – 407/984-3737 (HST/V32bis)
Response:
: An accident is just waiting to happen at FDK. : ARE YOU LISTENING FREDRICK!!!! : ARE YOU LISTENING AOPA??? Actually, Frederick isn’t anywhere near as bad as Gaithersburg in my opinion. Sure it gets busy on sunny Saturdays but so do lots of other fields in the area. Carroll County had a mid-air and they have much less traffic. -Ron
Response:
: Now, I don’t have a Washington sectionnal chart handy, so is there : a reason why Frederick is so busy? Like proximity from DC, on-field : facilities, restaurant, AOPA?… Theres a lot of flight training activity up there, some of it is based there and a lot of it is because FDK is a decent sized airport thats just 30 minutes away from lots of others. I tend to go there because they don’t particularly care for you shooting touch and goes at Dulles. It’s got a lot of local traffic I suspect because it’s the first decent airport thats far enough out not to have horredous tiedown/hanger fees. It’s also well away from the Class B and the Mode C veil so it attracts people scared of ATC. The other alternatives on this side are all under the TCA (HEF, GAI, JYO). When the weather is nice on Saturday, you got flight training in full swing, people flying in from other places, and the glider ops. Actually, I much prefer W66 (Warrenton-Faquier). I don’t understand why they aren’t busier than they are. The FBO tries real hard there and the fuel is cheap (no restaurant though). -Ron
Response:
Yes, ALL of the MANY people who responded on the net and with e-mail were 100% right…it was Frederick Maryland (FDK) home of AOPA! Interesting to hear that I’m not the only person who will be avoiding this place from now on. What a crazy place. High time something was done. However, as one person pointed out to me, there would be little point in having a tower there since there would be no way to fit the amount of traffic onto the runways if the field were controlled. An accident is just waiting to happen at FDK. ARE YOU LISTENING FREDRICK!!!! ARE YOU LISTENING AOPA???
Response:
| Yes, ALL of the MANY people who responded on the net and with e-mail | were 100% right…it was Frederick Maryland (FDK) home of AOPA! | | Interesting to hear that I’m not the only person who will be avoiding | this place from now on. What a crazy place. High time something was | done. However, as one person pointed out to me, there would be little | point in having a tower there since there would be no way to fit the | amount of traffic onto the runways if the field were controlled. | Now, I don’t have a Washington sectionnal chart handy, so is there a reason why Frederick is so busy? Like proximity from DC, on-field facilities, restaurant, AOPA?… Chris Ratel
Response:
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