Find Us At Sacramento McClellan Airport

From I-80 in either direction, exit at Watt Avenue and follow Peacekeeper Way. That single instruction covers arrivals from downtown Sacramento, Roseville, Citrus Heights and Natomas alike — they differ only in how long they spend on the motorway before it.

3028 Peacekeeper Way is the address of the terminal building on the field, not of one company inside it. The airport’s own office publishes the same street address, and so do other aviation businesses based here. A satellite navigation system will therefore bring you to the right car park and then stop being useful — it has no way of knowing which desk inside is ours.

The last hundred yards are done by name rather than by number. Come into the lobby and say you are here for DIVA Flight School Sacramento, or call the number on your confirmation and someone will come out to the car park for you. If you pull in and are not certain you are at the right building, call before you start walking.

No. McClellan stopped being an Air Force base in 2001, and the streets inside McClellan Park are ordinary roads today. There is no checkpoint on the way in, no badge to apply for beforehand, and nothing to send us before you drive out. A conference centre, a public museum and several hundred businesses share the same park, and the traffic on those streets is people going to work.

The controlled area begins at the ramp gate behind the building, and that is the only line that matters. You cross it with an instructor beside you, and what you need in order to cross it is government-issued photo ID. Everything on the public side — the road in, the guest parking, the lobby — is simply open.

Distances, not drive times. A mile does not change at half past five, so these are numbers you can plan against rather than a figure that is true at ten in the morning and a lie at rush hour.

• Downtown Sacramento — about 9 miles south, up Business 80 to I-80 and out at Watt Avenue.
• Citrus Heights — about 8 miles east, and on the same side of the American River, so you cross neither the river nor downtown.
• Roseville — about 12 miles north-east on I-80.
• Rocklin — about 17 miles north-east, the same road a little further out.
• Sacramento International (SMF) — about 10 miles west, if somebody is flying in to meet you.

Watt Avenue and I-80 both back up at commute hours, and a number that is true at ten in the morning is a lie at half past five. The miles above are fixed; how long they take is not. Whatever the map says, give yourself a cushion if you’re driving in for a first flight: you’ll want a few unhurried minutes before you meet your instructor.

SacRT runs bus service up Watt Avenue, and the closest light rail is the Blue Line at Watt/I-80, from which a bus or a short ride covers the rest. Check the current SacRT timetable before you plan a lesson around it — service into a business park is thinner at weekends than on a weekday, and our flying hours are wider than the bus timetable.

Tell us when you book if you are coming by bus. If your return connection is tight we will schedule the debrief around it rather than leaving you to watch the clock.

The Aerospace Museum of California is at 3200 Freedom Park Drive, inside the same McClellan Park, and it is the landmark most people around here already know. From its car park it is a short drive across the park to Peacekeeper Way — which is why a museum visit and a discovery flight fit into the same morning more often than you would think.

Guest parking is directly in front of the main FBO entrance on level ground, and the entrance is step-free from the car park into the lobby. If you need a space close to the door, or a hand with anything on the way in, call ahead on the number below and we will meet you at the car rather than at the desk.

A light aircraft cockpit is small and you climb up on to a wing to get into it, which is worth knowing in advance. Tell us about anything that affects mobility when you book — it is a normal conversation, it changes which aircraft and which seat we plan around, and it is much better had on the phone than on the ramp.

3200 Freedom Park Drive, in the same McClellan Park and a few minutes from our door. Around forty aircraft outdoors and in, a hangar of exhibits, and a hands-on gallery aimed squarely at children who have started asking how aeroplanes work.

It is the most useful landmark we have, and not only for directions: a family that has spent a morning looking at aeroplanes on the ground is the most natural audience there is for a first flight in one. Plenty of our discovery flights are booked from that car park.

5411 Luce Avenue, also inside the park. It is where events and meetings on the base end up, and it is a handy reference point if somebody is giving you directions by building rather than by street.

McClellan operated as an Air Force base from 1936 until 2001, and the scale of it is still obvious the moment you drive in: a 10,600-foot runway, hangars built for aircraft far larger than ours, and streets named after what used to fly from here. That inheritance is why a general aviation field on the edge of a state capital has this much room in it.