flying from Palomar (carlsbad)
 

hi,
advice please. anyone rented from any of the 3 companies on this field?
if so good bad or indifferent.
palomar is 25miles north of san diego

Palomar - KCRQ
 

Great airport, great facilities (good runway and ILS). I stay in Coronado when I visit San Diego and find it well worth the hour's drive up to Palomar (past Montgomery where I have found attitudes and procedures for transient rental pilots less than welcoming).

I've rented from Orion Aviation on many occasions (most recently this May) and would highly recommend them. Their Duchess is slightly ropey but their other aircraft are in very good shape (they have some new 172s and a fairly new model Archer).

They had a very professional attitude towards maintenance and service, which I particularly appreciated (eg staff would come around to top off the oil and clean the windows every morning). The place is owned by a mechanic (Pat - ex USAF who spent time at Lakenheath) who took reports of squawks very seriously and rectified them quickly (they have their own maintenance).

They were also very flexible with me taking a plane all day.

Other than Civic Helicopters (another very professional outfit), I haven't used any of the other places at Palomar.

yes orion are 1st class

When I flew from there 15 years ago, I was told that it had been built on landfill. This was borne out by the apparent shifting of the ground in the area of the south side tiedowns and hangers. The pavement was so distorted, while taxiing a Cessna 210, I was really quite concerned about a prop strike. The owner assured me it was fine as long as you taxied slowly, but it was still alarming.

A large hanger which housed a specticular warbird collection, had many cracks in the floor, and obvious shifting of the foundation. I have not been back since, I sure hope they got things fixed, though it must have been quite a task!

If you're flying around there, a flight up to Chino is well worth the effort if you are a warbird fan. Lots going on up there.

Pilot DAR