Kalispell, MT Airports - Which One?

Well, if Doug says Montana is in the Midwest, I guess I can go with that

Anyway, we are going to be spending a week in western Montana in early July, and my plan is to fly into the Kalispell area. Either Glacier Park International (KGPI) or Kalispell City Airport (S27) look like good candidates, with KGPI being bigger and having more services.

Any recommendations/suggestions on these two alternatives would be most welcome!

Kalispell City

I vote for Kalispell City. It's located in town within walking distance of many stores and restaurants. Nice little airport. Fuel may be cheaper at 65s on your way west and there are real nice people at the Boundary County airport.

Regards,
Mark
RV-8A empennage
TDY March ARB

A second vote for Kalispell City for the same reasons. However, the hotel across the highway from the airport (Outlaw Inn, if I remember right) used to be the fancy one but had been allowed to run down by the time we stayed there a few years ago and there are better places now. Glacier International is out in the boonies. Check on car rental possibilities before you go; you'll probably want one regardless of where you park your plane.

Rutus said:

Well, if Doug says Montana is in the Midwest, I guess I can go with that

Anyway, we are going to be spending a week in western Montana in early July, and my plan is to fly into the Kalispell area. Either Glacier Park International (KGPI) or Kalispell City Airport (S27) look like good candidates, with KGPI being bigger and having more services.

Any recommendations/suggestions on these two alternatives would be most welcome!

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If you have seen Doug's travel map you'll notice he doesn't know where Montana is. So he may be confusing it with North Dakota or Iowa or something.

Back to your post. Where to stay depends on what you want.

S27 is a nice little place. Red Eagle Aviation is my FBO of choice when there. They can line you up with a car or fuel or ???? Grocery stores and motels right next door.

GPI is the big airport and such has that atmosphere. Don't know much about services, except my daughter, the CPA, uses Edwards Jet Center when her firm charters a C-340 from BZN to GPI. Here's a webcam for GPI: glacierwebcam.com/ Click on controls and you can view "Edwards" or what ever. I like ot use it to see what the weather looks like before launching from HLN to s27 via the "Swan" valley.

Cheapest gas in the area is usually at Ronan 7S0 But I don't see them listed on airnav fuel pricing, so may want to call before going there. Another close fuel is Cabin Creek Landing 97MT http://www.airnav.com/airport/97MT, not sure about fuel pricing there either, as I haven't visited our lot yet this year.

Let me know if you need more info. Kalispell is where my wife and I are from and will retire to.

RScott said:

A second vote for Kalispell City for the same reasons. However, the hotel across the highway from the airport (Outlaw Inn, if I remember right) used to be the fancy one but had been allowed to run down by the time we stayed there a few years ago and there are better places now. Glacier International is out in the boonies. Check on car rental possibilities before you go; you'll probably want one regardless of where you park your plane.

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Yep, Outlaw has seen better days. Depending on how fancy you need or don't need, try AeroInn or Hilton Garden Inn both are with spitting distance to the tie-downs....ok maybe not spitting distance, but really close.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. The actual plan is that my wife Laurie and our 2 daughters are taking the Empire Builder train from Seattle to Glacier (Whitefish), and they will rent a car there. My sister and I will then fly the RV over and meet them. GPI is actually probably a little easier for them to pick us up at, but either airport would be fine from that perspective. We'll spend 3 days up in the Glacier area, then head down to Butte (my dad's hometown) for 3-4 days in that part of the state, then Laurie and the girls will head back to Whitefish and take the train home, and my sis and I will fly back to Bremerton.

So, all I really need is a place to tie down for a week - everything else is very flexible. I might do a little sightseeing flying while we are there, or maybe not, depending on how things play out.

We used to go to MT often when I was a kid, my dad had friends (Ted and Ann Keiley) that ran cattle on 12,000 acres near Avon, MT. We often drove over, and that was a good 10+ hr from Seattle. Doing it in 2+ hr by RV is going to be a lot nicer!