I am heading to KDCA in 6 days to spend the day at the airport. I depart April 3rd and return the same day.
I’ll be flying Frontier (was that a surprise honestly) in a 3 hour and 12 minute flight to DCA and a 4 hour and 16 minute flight back to DEN.
I arrive into DCA at 12:30 PM EDT and board my flight back at 7:15 PM EDT. I want to do some good spotting and I know about Gravelly Point but on foot it would take forever to reach it not to mention i wouldn’t have internet to watch FR24 and live ATC.net.
Does anyone know if there is a parking garage or even inside the terminal I can go to that had a good view of the airport so I can get some good shots? I hear terminal C had a good overview of the runway 19 so should I head there? Try to keep in mind that I’m on foot the whole time so only destinations that can be reached on foot should be suggested.
Any feedback as I prepare for the longest series of flights I’ve flown since 2015.
Dang means we just missed each other by a day or more. Have fun in DC. I’m excited for this flight lol as it is a long one for me. Means lots of snacks and downloaded movies on my iPad to watch. It’ll give me a chance to see how I can tolerate their seats too for this long. 4 hours is a lot of time.
Ya hopefully I get to stop by gravely point, we will be there for the National STEM convention… looks like Lockheed Martin is a big sponsor, so hoping for good aviation stuff…🙃
Robert, you ain’t off the hook till you join me in Dallas! In all seriousness, I would check maybe DCA’s website for different spotting locations. I’m not aware of any good spotting locations at DCA obviously.
Thanks for the thought anyway haha. And I’ll do my best to get down to Dallas. It actually was more expensive to fly DEN - DFW then it was DEN - DCA for some weird reason. Plus the added bonus of the DEN - DCA 3-4 hour flights instead of the DEN - DFW 1.5 hour flights convinced me to try out Reagan
Yeah but if you rack up those FFT miles it will be cheaper. United or AA might be cheap also. Also take a look at Southwest as Love Field is their hub.
In terms of spotting locations I don’t know of any on site, but I am sure you are aware of gravely point wich is right near the runway, We go to DC a lot to see family, make sure we go there every time…
It’s worth it to take an Uber or taxi to Gravelly Point…it would take 2 minutes and I can’t imagine it would cost anything much.
If you are worried about WiFi, take the above transportation across the GW Parkway to where Ruth’s Chris is. Ruth’s Chris is on the 11th floor of a high rise and from the bar windows you can see all the action of the airport from up there.
I would imagine if they don’t have WiFi that you could maybe(?) pick it up from one of the many nearby shops/restaurants:
Another note on Gravelly - you can easily get on the Mount Vernon Trail and walk to the park from the airport. It’s really not that far…and the trail is literally on the end of 15 on your way towards the park.
