- The runway is barely maintained. But, it is not perfectly smooth. Treat it like a soft field.
- When taxiing anywhere besides the runway, you will be taxiing on turf. Protect your nose wheel.
- In the daytime watch out for chickens.
- At night, beware of coyotes.
- Do not park, walk, or stand under the concrete bikini hangars. They are off-limits due to instability and collapse.
- The windsock is in disrepair. Do not trust it. Look for other nearby flags and smoke from local bbq restaurants.
- The runway has non-standard markings
- The runway is a lot shorter than you think due to displaced thresholds at both ends due to buildings, fences, and trees.
- Make all of your radio calls on the CTAF while taxiing. Make a few CTAF radio calls while in the pattern and right before taking the runway for takeoff. All of your other radio calls will be on Addison or Fort Worth frequencies. There is very little traffic at Airpark (1-2 aircraft a day). All of the other traffic in the area will be on Addison or Fort Worth frequencies.
- The runway is aligned with the runway at Addison. You will be on a very similar final and departure leg.
- Addison is only 3 miles away. You can almost see the Airpark area from the Addison Tower.
- Because of Addison Tower’s Proximity to Airpark, contacting them as soon as practicable means as soon as you start the engine.
- Addison Tower does not like hearing from pilots directly as an initial radio call. They prefer pilots to contact Ground first and get transferred to them via a frequency change. At Airpark, it would be best to get Clearance Delivery and/or flight following first through Fort Worth Approach. Then, contact Addison Tower.
- Inbound to the Addison Class D, you are required to listen to the ATIS first. There will be a frequency given over ATIS to contact Fort Worth Approach. You must contact Fort Worth Approach before contacting Addison Tower. Period! Trust me when I say Addison Tower will not like it if they are your first point of contact.
- Addison is an extremely busy Class D. It caters to jet and turboprop business aviation. If it did not have DFW and Love Field about 10 miles away, it would probably be a Class C or at least a TRSA.
- There can be as much as a 15 minute and sometimes up to an hour wait in the run-up area for clearance to takeoff. And, they will sometimes utilize a line up and wait clearance. This can affect your takeoff clearance at Airpark.
- Good visual reference points for Airpark are the Dallas North Tollway and the President George Bush Tollway. Airpark is located in their Northwest corner.
- The Airpark area is extremely congested. Climb out to a safe altitude as soon as possible. If you have an engine out upon takeoff you have very few options. None of them good. To the North, you have a green space on the East side of the Dallas North Tollway. To the South, you have Addison Airport.
- Do not contact the Airpark airport owner, operator, or manager listed as points of contact. They are anti-aviation real estate developers who bought the land as an investment. They will try to steer you clear of Airpark as much as possible. Their acquisition of Airpark is very similar to Meigs Field in Chicago. They bulldozed the operating FBO and fueling area. But, it took a court order to keep them from bulldozing the runway.
- Most pilots choose to go North and East to practice maneuvers, to practice instrument approaches, and to beat up the traffic pattern at other airports.
- If you have at least a private pilot certificate, do not worry or be intimidated by the Class B. If you are flying to, from, through, or above the Addison airspace, you will need to be in two-way communication with ATC anyway. Just ask for clearance through the Bravo.
