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What are the flying accommodations in Silicon Valley for private pilots? I notice there are two pretty sizable airports: Moffett Airfield and Mineta San Jose. Do both accept GA flights and have landing fees below $50?
What about instruction? Where do pilots generally go for instruction in the San Jose-Palo Alto area?
Moffett Field is still primarily a Federal airfield. They'll take some corporate jets, but not GA, and prior permission is required. All requests go through Planetary Ventures LLC, which owned by Google.
San Jose is a large international airport, but it appears to have no landing fee, though you'll pay a ramp fee unless it's waived. Some AirNav reviews of the FBO give you an idea of what to expect, and you could contact them for further information.
There are a number of GA airports to choose from though. Including:
All of these airports have flying clubs and should offer instruction.
Along with others somewhat further away (a few examples include Half Moon Bay to the Northwest, San Martin to the south, Hayward Executive and Oakland International to the east), depending on where exactly you'd like to be.
@zach-lipton has a pretty concise answer about airports.
Due to the SFO class B airspace, the training area is primarily NE (Calaveras) to SE ("UTC" / Anderson Lake) of KRHV (and South to East of KLVK). If you're departing from KPAO, it's a good 15-20 mins each way to and from the training area. KPAO also has IMC more frequently than KRHV, which is a big advantage if you're mostly going to fly VFR. It's also further out to get to non-towered airports from KPAO (E16/KTCY/C83 are the closest). Highway 101 N/S is pretty busy around KPAO (Embarcadero exit), so unless you will generally avoid the morning/evening commute, KRHV may be easier to get to by road than KPAO.
KSJC is a busy airport, but they do accommodate GA training operations if they can. I would recommend against using KSJC GA as your transit point though -- KRHV is about 5 miles away, and much cheaper.
If you're a visiting pilot and want to use the transient parking, transient tiedown fees apply -- see KPAO, KRHV. Some FBOs or flight schools may offer lower tiedowns in their ramp areas at the airports.
