Essex County Airport

Normally, a control tower will put your IFR clearance on request with center, then clear you to taxi to the active while they're waiting for the clearance to arrive for them to relay to you.

In my case, I taxied without the IFR clearance because that was what I was instructed to do when I called for a clearance.

Reply to @david: I don't understand this. Why would you begin to taxi before getting your clearance. Just wondering

Thanks for the info....it's not that I was in a hurry, I was in the plane on the ramp getting ready to taxi. and later inbound for landing. Kind of tough to see the phone# on the gate from either location. ;-) Good to know where I can find it though. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Reply to @CathyV: CDW towers phone number is posted right at the front gate, near ops all numbers are listed you cant miss it. You must have been in a hurry if you didnt catch it. RobG

Thankfully, Avant Air moved out of their leaded office space at Mac Dan to give appropriate fuel competition! Mac Dan's confidential fuel discounts are rediculous. Some people/companies/flight schools/flying clubs nearly receive 20% discounts on Avgas & Jet A, the data sheets area behind the front desk in the main lobby of Mac Dan. -That kind of discount can add up to thousands of dollars quite fast! -Anyone wonder why their fuel trucks are always empty or why a service call for fuel takes up to thirty minutes?

I had exactly the same experience at Republic in spring 2004, right down to sitting on the runway (as instructed by tower) and holding everyone else up. Same lesson -- if you can take a VFR departure out of a NY-area airport, do. It's the controller's error putting you on the runway before your clearance is ready, but why invite trouble in the first place?

I must have tied up traffic for 30 minutes of more waiting at the entrance for my IFR clearance. I'd taxied out after being told to, but there were 4 or 5 planes waiting behind me and by the time I suddenly realized that I could depart VFR and pick up a clearance later, the clearance had actually come. I felt like a complete dick.

CDW is indeed tough to spot especially when MMU is only 5 miles away and practically visible from space. The AFD also gives you a super long list of rules and noise abatement procedures that often scare new pilots away. Just ignore them. The airport is surrounded by industrial parks and a golf course. And who cares about golfers right? Runway 9/27 recently renamed 10/28. Lighting at night could be stronger...and don't feel bad when a controller who sounds like a man turns out to be the scariest woman alive...other than that...GREAT AIRPORT.

For some reason, I always find this airport hard to see from low altitude when I'm a couple of miles away. There are buildings around it and a low hill on one side. When I first visited here I was a fairly new pilot, and I wonder if my not seeing it now is just a throwback to that first visit.

This is a nice airport for visiting northern New Jersey (a bit too far for Manhattan) -- I've stopped here a few times to visit a customer almost within walking distance. Unfortunately, the airport is most famous as the one John F. Kennedy Jr. departed from in his Saratogo on his last flight.