Welcome to PBI - West Palm Beach, FL. . . . Date of this page - 23 Apr 00
Eastern Time Zone. Aircraft - 1 BE02.

The City and Area

West Palm Beach is part of the Florida East Coast, very influential, home of Kennedy, Trump and all those others. It is glitzy, expensive and covered with retired New Yorkers. In spite of all this it is still a beautiful area. The beach is one of the nicest in Florida.

A one bedroom apt. near the airport will cost you around $600/month. This place is not cheap.

The Ale House on Palm Beach Gardens Drive is a popular pilot watering hole - pool tables, bands, etc. It's just down the street from the Best Western (the old crew hotel).

The Domicile

PBI is the senior base in South FL. Being the closest to Orlando, all the fallout from the MCO closing came here (Tenney, Walters, Morris). The lines average 12 days off.

PBI is not yet a pilot friendly airport. Flight crews are not considered employees, therefore you don't get a SIDA badge or employee parking. They have been nice enough to give us a Park'n'Ride badge that reduces daily parking to $1/day. Everyone submits expense reports which have not been paid in a long time. The Park'n'Ride buses are not very dependable. Allow 10-15 minutes in the parking lot if you want to be on time. There is a crew area all the way at the back which is a shorter walk to the terminal. Still, you walk thru employee parking which just adds insult to injury.

There is no Express crew lounge and no place near the gate to escape public view. There is a mainline crew lounge across the ramp with couches, phone and vending (where ops is), and though it's a hike, it's worth it. The vending machines are much cheaper over there. There are two lockers at the gate. If you try to leave a bag there outside the locker or file cabinet, someone will give it to Airport Security and you have to go beg to get it back.

We are making some progress with PBIA security as to AOA access but we are a long way from getting badges ("No way", says Bob Macnamara, head of PBIA). We WERE allowed anywhere on the AOA without escort but the FAA has made a "new ruling" that we need to be "escorted when outside the footprint of our airplane". Ridiculous. We ARE allowed thru any AOA access port as long as we are with a badged employee, in spite of what people will tell you. It's taking time, but someday PBIA will accept us as employees!

The Flying

There are two shifts each day, a morning shift with one trip to TLH, then to MCO for a Naples (APF) turn, and an evening shift with one trip to TLH. PBI is unique in that it is totally legal to fly any time, since there is a 9 hr break between evening and next morning shifts. Unfortunately crew scheduling will not build the lines that way but we shift trade a lot. We even trade within shifts quite often. If someone wants to leave early they will do the first round trip and the evening crew will come in early and do the last two. Dispatch and crew scheduling has worked with us on this (so far).

There are no shifts on Saturday and two on Sunday (two TLH turns, and a turn to MCO for a 2 hr sit). Weekends off WERE common around here before the USAirways schedule change. It is important to remember that these tickets are expensive so 3 paying passengers makes a profit!

The information below is "Not to be Used for Navigational Purposes". As usual the pilots are responsible for reviewing all pertinent material. Sorry about the disclaimer.

There are currently two destinations from PBI - TLH and MCO.

TLH - block: 1:45 Seg. 1:40 up 1:35 back
MCO - Block :50 Seg .83

PBI ATIS 123.75 CLC 121.6 GND 121.9 TWR 119.1 Company is 129.75. Palm Beach Approach Control has three primary frequencies: North - 124.6, West 128.3 and South 125.2

Miami and Ft. Lauderdale traffic are a factor in all flights. It gets pretty busy during the tourist season (Fall thru Spring). Also, PBI is crawling with fractionals, so expect delays during heavy times.

Usual clearances:

MCO - Rwy heading to 1500' (this will be modified to 4000' by tower, traffic permitting - thanks ALPA!), expect 13000' 10 mins. after. Freq 124.6. Vectors to Join V531 (radial 327 off of PBI - 115.7) to BAIRN intersection then the Goofy 2 arrival (heading 360 if landing North, join 162 radial inbound to ORL 112.2 - hdg 342, if landing to the south). Expect Rwy 35 or 17. If traffic is light they might send you to 36R or 18L, a shorter taxi to the gate. 17 is not a bad taxi either.

Freqs in order - PBI appch 124.6, Miami CTR 135.17, then 124.1, Orlando APPCH 124.8, Orl Final APPCH 127.75. MCO ATIS is 121.25, Company is 131.25

TLH - Rwy heading to 1500' (see above), expect FL 200 10 minutes after departure, dep. frequency is 124.6. Expect Vectors direct LAL (116.0) and then the J-route to TLH (initial hdg out of LAL is 321). Near TLH they will vector you for a final (VOR is about 10 miles north of field).

Freqs in order - PBI appch 124.6, Miami CTR 135.17, 132.45,127.2, Jax CTR 133.32, 128.05 and then 127.8. TLH Appch is 135.8 TLH ATIS is 119.45, Company is 129.75.

Special Hints

There is no company maintenance in PBI or TLH. Check your own oil in PBI because TLH Flightline charges us $75 to check it. Large rats have been spotted near the oil materials outside of gate 3A. Beware!

TLH is a Piedmont base. You may encounter a hostile attitude from some Piedmont employees (at all bases) towards Mesa/Air Midwest. TLH has a few to watch for. Be careful when you call your On and Ins, because if they think you are stretching them they will call dispatch and complain.

PBI is a mainline base. All Ramp and Gate agents here are senior, and enjoy working here. The group we get over at "Express" is great. They will work with you on everything, including helping you find a crashpad. The fuelers work for ASI and are also a great group.

 email me with comments or changes.