Different Airports

This is a very different airport environment from Leesburg.  The big difference: no Washington DC SFRA to worry with, of course.  On the other hand, Naples has a tower.

Naples airport (KAPF) has a lot of general aviation jet traffic, a control tower, two intersecting runways, and what seems to be a zillion taxiways and ramps.  It can be very confusing until you catch on.  Moreover, the tower has the habit of telling you to "Report the courthouse on left base" (a big white building in south Naples) or "Report the toll booth" on left base, meaning the toll booths on I-75, conveniently about 2 miles from the runway.  Fortunately the runways are long and wide (6600x150), and the weather is usually, well, perfect. 

Approaching runway 05 KAPF

The airport is right on the coast.  When approaching runway 05, you turn base over the Gulf of Mexico, and it is not unusual to see dolphins in the water and sunbathers on the beach below while you're descending to the runway.

There is a good deal of student pilot work going on in the area, especially by foreigners who have been sent here by their airlines to get their pilot license -- what is called "ab initio" training in the airline business -- so some of the accents and pronunciation leave me puzzled.  But the tower controllers usually seem to understand and make themselves understood. 

Despite being a little testy at times with those who don't know their way around, the tower controllers can be very helpful too.  They don't mind clearing you to land on the grass beside the runway if you ask nicely, especially when they're not too busy.


The Citation and Gulfstream jets come zooming in here at their usual high speeds, and they have to mix with the Cessna 172's and taildraggers.  More than once I've been asked to "make maximum speed" because some Gulfstream is coming up behind me.


The neat thing is that our house is about 2.9 nm from the CYY VOR on the field, and just about directly under the flight path for runway 05-23.  I get to watch airplanes all day long, even while standing on the driving range at the club. And when I take off on runway 05, I fly right over our neighborhood.  The other day departure asked us to stay below 500 feet for separation from some incoming traffic, so we flew right over the house at 500 feet.