Shirl:
I used to live in San Mateo. When I go back there, the airspace seems
insanely crowded -- "you're 6th in line behind blahblahblah!" Are you
flying with West Valley?

"Hilton" wrote:
Actually SQL is a busy, yet not busy airport; i.e. you taxi to the runway
and you're flying pretty shortly after that. I did my CMEL at SQL and I
don't recall any long waits. The tower guys are great. I was up in the
tower once when some guy comes flying in and *seriously* did not know his
left from his right. Tower would ask him to turn left and he'd turn right
etc. He didn't know the runways either. The tower guys had to start saying
things like: "Look which side of the panel your airspeed indicator is on and
turn that way." The atmosphere alternated between professional concern to
amusement. This guy was all over the airspace - scarey. PAO is a lot more
crowded. I was once about 6th in line and announced "Cessna 12345 in
sequence runway 31, Angel Flight". The reply was "Cessna 345, if you can,
taxi around the other aircraft, cleared for take-off" Nice. RHV can get
busy, but if you can fit in with the flow on busy days, it's easy enough.
Perhaps the quietest place nowadays is SJC Intl if you don't mind mixing it
with 737s and DC-10s - they don't share the short runway with you
fortunately.

The Bay Area is a great place to fly, Napa is 40 minutes, Monterey is 30,
Tahoe is 1:20, Yosemite is 50 minutes, Harris Ranch is 1:00, etc...

That's true, about all those great places only being minutes away. I
also love to go from either SQL or PAO over the hill to Half Moon Bay
and fly along the coast when the clouds aren't sitting right on the
hill. Hollister was cool, too.

My daughter was a CFI at PAO, and you're right, that place is even
busier than SQL. That's where I was also 6th in line, but as you said,
the controllers are very good, and amazingly, even with multiple schools
and only one runway, there were no long waits as there are here at DVT
(Arizona) where you can sit for 20 minutes or more waiting to be cleared
for takeoff. Hayward and Livermore seem pretty nice, less busy ... I'm
just not used to, and not crazy about flying over the bay!
;-)

Shirl