Santa Monica (KSMO) Tips or Gotchas?

In article ,
Hamish Reid wrote:

I'll be flying one of our 172's down to Santa Monica (KSMO) sometime in
the next few weeks, probably this coming Friday (returning the following
day). [...]

Thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions so far -- it sounds like
Supermarine will work just fine for the FBO (even with those fuel
prices...), I'll keep my noise down, and I'll keep a look out for the
non-taxiway taxiways. As for tipping -- well, I still don't know, but
it sounds like there's not much consensus there anyway. I
originally come from a part of the world where tipping is only done
when service was exceptional, and the tip might be only 10% at that, so
tipping's always been a mystery for me here.

And I probably should have been clearer about the IFR thing -- I'm
actually fairly famililar with SoCal's airspace VFR (although I've
never landed at SMO before), but part of the reason for doing this
flight is to do it IFR, at least between Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo
and Santa Monica (both ways). I only recently got my IFR ticket, and I
just thought it'd be interesting to try something new -- even if it
means I'll be vectored from here to eternity (I'm based at Oakland -- I
know what it means to be vectored :-) ...).

Thanks again,

Hamish

Another vote for SMO/Supermarine... I've been there three
times in the last couple of years and been very happy
with their service... rental car waiting on the ramp,
that kind of thing.

I just about always fly IFR into the LA area, and have never
had any truly awful vectors. About the worst was going into
LAX on an IMC day when they sent me maybe 15 mins out of
my way. LGB is fun because they hold you at 6000' over the
LAX final then you get to dive bomb into the airport. I don't
recall anything special at SMO.

There is a truly excellent evolved-Japanese restaurant on the
field, The Hump. I believe Typhoon is also very good but I don't
know because I've never been able to resist The Hump!

As for tipping... never done it, seems to be a fairly broad
consensus. Of course assuming your name is indicative of your
origins, I would understand that tipping wouldn't come
naturally :-)

John

In article 1118644473.768445@sj-nntpcache-3,
John Harper wrote:

As for tipping... never done it, seems to be a fairly broad
consensus. Of course assuming your name is indicative of your
origins, I would understand that tipping wouldn't come
naturally :-)

You got it :-)

Hamish

John Harper wrote:
Another vote for SMO/Supermarine... I've been there three
times in the last couple of years and been very happy
with their service... rental car waiting on the ramp,
that kind of thing.

I just about always fly IFR into the LA area, and have never
had any truly awful vectors. About the worst was going into
LAX on an IMC day when they sent me maybe 15 mins out of
my way. LGB is fun because they hold you at 6000' over the
LAX final then you get to dive bomb into the airport. I don't
recall anything special at SMO.

There is a truly excellent evolved-Japanese restaurant on the
field, The Hump. I believe Typhoon is also very good but I don't
know because I've never been able to resist The Hump!

As for tipping... never done it, seems to be a fairly broad
consensus. Of course assuming your name is indicative of your
origins, I would understand that tipping wouldn't come
naturally :-)


With the cost of SoCal real estate, SMO is a great candidate for
conversion to commercial/residential uses. The property taxes
alone would contribute to shoring up Arnold's fiscal problems.

JG