Washington DC Area
 

I'm planning a 5 day trip to DC in early April, and will be staying in the downtown part of DC. Any suggestions on the best airport to use? I saw that Executive and the airport right next to it were both about 8 miles SE. Any reports or comments on these airports? Transportation to and from? Fuel prices? Suggestions for others?

Thanks,

Keven
________
Paxil lawsuit settlements

Keven:

I lived in the DC area for 20 years. Although I wasn't a pilot then, I know the area well and have often planned to fly up there in my Skymaster.

Let me offer two suggestions.

Manassas Regional ( http://www.airnav.com/airport/KHEF ) is on the SW outskirts of the DC Metropolitan Area. Although it's inside the new ADIZ which surrounds DC, which requires that you be in contact with ATC and have a discrete squawk code (either IFR or VFR Flight Following), it's in a fairly uncongested area and easy to get to (especially coming in from the South like you will), although you need a rental car to get downtown because a taxi would be expensive.

Another choice is Potomac Airfield ( http://potomac-airfield.com/ ) belonging to David Wartofsky (301 248-5720) who owns a Skymaster and used to be a frequent (although ultra-conservative) contributor to Peter's website. This is probably the airport closest to downtown DC, and therefore inside the ADIZ, which requires that you be in contact with ATC and have a discrete squawk code (either IFR or VFR Flight Following). But 100LL is $1.79 for airfield-based aircraft and maybe David will extend the same courtesy to you.

In terms of advertised fuel prices, I use www.airnav.com and it shows that College Park (KCGS) is the cheapest around at $2.00, but the downside is that it's on the North side of all the congestion, so it's not as easy to get to.

Ernie

re washington
 

Potomac field is verboten for alien aircraft (not based at potomac).
check other airports.
there is an ADIZ over washington at the moment due to raised terrorist threat. .

Suggest further afield and rent a car........

Bob