PilotEdge Forums

Hello all,

I was wondering how to land at a class bravo airport, hang out for a few minutes to get sorted, and then depart again. KMCO is my closest bravo and I've been wondering about handling the "turn around". Should I get in touch with an FBO and park there? I'd hate to pay parking fees if heading to a random ramp to get clearance and depart would work, but then again I don't anticipate many of those being just empty for GA... Anyway aside from giving them a call I just can't find much on this topic for people staying at a B for like 15 minutes! Also I'm not trying to penny pinch, if a landing fee and a ramp fee are in the cards and make the transition the most reasonable it is what it is ha.

Thanks,
Dave H

I've done this once before at DAL, albeit it was after 10pm when the airport seems to all but shut down for noise abatement measures. We called up approach and asked for a a full-stop and taxi back to the runway. Without any hassle they vectored us in for 13L. After exiting the runway, we were instructed to contact ground. When on ground we were immediately given our class B clearance, a climb and vector instruction. Piece of cake. Now would the same thing happen at DFW? Unlikely. Would the same thing happen at DAL if you were there at 3pm on a Wednesday? Probably less likely.

The best thing to do would be to call your local TRACON office or Tower and tell them what you want. In my experience, they have always been more than willing to give advice on operations in their respective airspace. Landing fees may be a different story. You can usually avoid them with the purchase of fuel. But do you really want to pay $8/gal for 100ll?

Hey Asad,

I heard on Ty's stream that I've been hitting the pattern at SNA in my light sport pretty hard lately? Thanks for noticing!

Anyway that's perfect and exactly what I would like to do. I really wasn't sure how they'd feel about such a quick turn around since it would mean I obviously didn't have legit business being there. I'll give them a call to see what our version of "all but shut down" is, thank you!

Dave

The only Class B I'm aware of that has a real problem with VFR full-stop/taxi-backs is Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), and frankly it's because it's in Chicago...and Illinois. A young private pilot filmed his night landing at O'Hare in a C172 a few years ago, it went viral, and then everyone wanted to do it, and you can imagine where the story goes from there.

asad112 wrote:The best thing to do would be to call your local TRACON office or Tower and tell them what you want. In my experience, they have always been more than willing to give advice on operations in their respective airspace. Landing fees may be a different story. You can usually avoid them with the purchase of fuel. But do you really want to pay $8/gal for 100ll?

"Landing fees" are typically charged by the airport authority and are not waived with fuel. "Ramp fees" or "handling fees" are charged by the FBOs and can be waived at their discretion.

You could call ahead, or you could show up and after landing when they say, "say parking," just tell them exactly what you need, "taxi back to runway xx with a xxx minute delay anywhere you want to put me." They might have you hang out an unused intersection until you're ready. The only thing that could put a hitch in the giddy up is if their SOP requires them to send any transient aircraft to the FBO or terminals for processing (ie, to pay the landing fee).

Keith Smith wrote:The only thing that could put a hitch in the giddy up is if their SOP requires them to send any transient aircraft to the FBO or terminals for processing (ie, to pay the landing fee).

Without 100% certainty, I believe this is the procedure at O'Hare these days.