ATC User Fees

Jose wrote:

It would have to be a =much= better reason than most.

It would have to be in any case, given all the other reasons not to go
to a large Class B airport. So what?


I don't understand the question. The fees at large commercial airports
are very much higher than fees elsewhere, although I have found bargains
at times. I've landed spam cans at Logan and National for example
during times when they were holding a sale.

The high fees serve as a deterrent - to a sufficent extent that most
spam cans avoid the airport. Long taxiways do not act as strongly as a
deterrent (though I've taxiied for more than an hour at Dulles - I was
glad I was on tach time and not hobbs!). While the exec who flies his
jet into the city for an important meeting can justify a hundred dollar
landing fee, the small business owner who is also a pilot and flies a
172 is likely to have a much harder time justifying it. He's likely to
fly elsewhere and take a cab, even if it takes a bit longer.

Yes, a 172 landing in front of a line of 747s will have a strong impact
on the airport's traffic pattern, and this should be figured in. It
wouldn't be so bad if there were nearby reliever airports (or even
reliever runways), but around the big hubs, the relievers are generally
not all that close. Flushing Airport would have been nice, alas it's
gone. There's nothing in Boston except Logan. We all know about DC...

Actually, with controllers worth their salt, a 172 can be slipped in
between two airliners with less delay than another airliner in the same
line would induce. The one time I flew into Logan, the controller had
me fly the "something bridge visual" and I made a close-in base to maybe
a 3/4 mile final. I was in the final approach for a very short time.
And my time on the runway was far shorter than an airliner making its
roll-out.

Sure, if they line up the 172 on a 10 mile final, then you will wreak
havoc on the traffic flow, but no controller with a clue would do that.
I've flown into a number of fairly large airports (Logan, Philly, BWI,
Washington National, etc.) and I never delayed an airliner. The
controllers uniformly did an excellent job of bringing me in on a close
pattern and I either landed on a GA runway (PHL and BWI) or dropped into
the airliner chain with narry a hiccup.


Matt


Matt