Boise, Idaho

My wife and I are looking at moving to Boise in the near future. We were out there several weeks back and visited both the Caldwell and Nampa airports. On initial inspection, both apppeared to be fairly well managed and manintained. Can anyone share their thoughts on either or both airports??
Chuck Brietigam
RV-3 N87CT
RV-6 N GoUp

Hope you move out this way Chuck

There are at least four Super Sixes within 3 hours of Boise. Mine in Santa Rosa CA. Bob Mills in Reno Nevada. Carl Brownd in Las Vegas Nevada. Bengt Follinger in Calgary Alberta. As far as Caldwell and Nampa, both have a lot of RV activity. I usually stop at Caldwell for fuel, because of the restaurant with outdoor seating.

I've flown into both, and according to local RV-6A'er Ed Bundy, Caldwell has more RVs based there than at any other airport in Idaho. Ditto about the restaurant on-field there! Rosie

Caldwell, definitely, but I'm prejudiced.

EUL is a real hot bed of experimental builders of all types, particularly RVs and HRs. Actually, the whole region (Treasure Valley it's called) is chock full of homebuilding. I'm sure much of it has to do with ID being a very aviation friendly state, and with the back country at hand, considerable activity has to do with the great outdoors - Cub and Cessna territory and their homebuilt purpose-built brethren.

Caldwell is less busy than Nampa, with a longer, wider runway, less surrounding congestion. Hangars always seem more open than Nampa which seems more buttoned down. Nampa has a greater variety of hangars, from shade to large private. Most poor pilot accommodations are shade and open community hangars with no privacy and operated by the city. There are large private hangars. Caldwell's entirely entrepreneur, all privately owned, most individual, quite a few available for purchase or lease. This likely contributes to Caldwell's more neighborly atmosphere. Both have IFR approaches.

Depending on where you decide to live, there are other surrounding airports, but it means a significant commute if you live in Boise metro. Local urban sprawl is westward, so either Caldwell or Nampa serve well. Forget BOI unless you really like pavement, but it's not congested even though a Class C airport. Everything there is pricier, and the TSA makes it GA un-friendly and becoming more so.

If you want, send me a PM with voice contact info.

John Siebold
Boise, ID

Most Innovative

Chuck's RV 6 is BY FAR the most innovative RV I have ever seen, and I have been around these things since the mid 80's. It has features the rest of us can only dream about. Well Chuck, some pic's? Sorry to put you on the spot Chuck.

N GoUp

Steve,
Thank you for your generous comments. I'll attempt to get some pictures posted. But first, I need to figure out how to post them. Please be a little patience.
Blue RV skies,
Chuck

Won't be dissapointed

I lived in Boise for 5 years, and really enjoyed it. I Learned to fly out of Caldwell in 2006, and started building my RV-7A the same year. Lots of RV activity and Idaho is awesome!

RV7ator said:

Forget BOI unless you really like pavement, but it's not congested even though a Class C airport. Everything there is pricier, and the TSA makes it GA un-friendly and becoming more so.

Click to expand...

Hey John, did you hear that BOI is getting a new airport manager? I seem to recall reading that in the paper this week. Maybe change is in the air?

I've had airplanes hangared at both Caldwell and Nampa. They both have pro's and con's. Nampa's restaraunt is much better. Hangar's are more expensive. Caldwell seems more friendly, a little quieter...but the drive is 10 minutes further from Boise. Overall, either is a good choice.

Sorry for the thread-drift!

Live on our Airpark!

Another option: Red Baron Airpark is about 30 minutes from downtown (20 minutes from east Boise) and has lots of room for building a house/hangar. It's good living, and we have 1 completed RV (mine) and 1 under construction (my neighbor). Send me an e-mail if you want any details, or search for my previous posts - I have some pictures and stuff.

In any case, Boise is a great place to live - welcome!

Go Broncos,

The posts about Caldwell being the most active for EAA are accurate from what I have seen, although the last local EAA meeting I went to was at the Nampa airport. The Caldwell airport has less congestion in the immediate area around it which makes it feel more rural. Last time I was there shooting nightime videos of our lights on my partner's Kitfox when an Apache helicopter came in for a nightime landing and takeoff which was cool.

I've only been to Caldwell twice... Once in December of last year, when I went to inspect an RV-6, and once in January of this year, when I went back to pick it up and fly it home. I found Caldwell to be a really nice airport, with large ramps, nice hangars, a small but good restaurant, free WiFi available from the flying school (within spitting distance of the gas pumps), etc.

The person I bought the plane from said that the field has a lot of RV's on it. I expect it would be more active in the warmer summer months, but it was still quite busy for January. While fuelling for the return trip we had half a dozen people walk or drive up to talk to the Canadians and see the two RV's while they were parked on the ramp.

airports

Look up Dan Wheeler, he has lived there a good while.