Where in San Diego can I land my chopper?

November 8, 2010 1:21 PM

Is there a hotel that has: a) (relative) proximity to the San Diego Convention Center and b) a helicopter landing pad?
posted by davidjmcgee to Travel & Transportation around San Diego, CA (12 answers total)

Best answer: Nothing registered with the FAA, no. Most of the private heliports in the area are associated with the hospitals. Other private heliports in the city are owned by KGTV, the city police, and Qualcomm; there's also a private executive heliport downtown somewhere.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:26 PM on November 8, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, backseatpilot, that's very helpful! What is this "private executive heliport" of which you speak? Is there a handy place I could find more information on it?
posted by davidjmcgee at 1:33 PM on November 8, 2010

I assume that this data comes from this search page from the FAA. I believe the private executive heliport that backseatpilot alludes to is listed as the "TORREY PINES CORPORATE HELISTOP" possibly located here.
posted by mhum at 2:04 PM on November 8, 2010

Airnav and runwayfinder are a couple of places to search for places to land, though they're not turning up anything in this case beyond what has already been pointed out.

Here is the airnav entry for the Torrey Pines place.
posted by exogenous at 2:14 PM on November 8, 2010

The Torrey Pines heliport is nowhere near downtown San Diego. (It is, however, quite near my mom's house and she is a great cook. (Won't she be surprised when you show up!))
posted by shiny blue object at 2:53 PM on November 8, 2010

Torrey Pines is also incidentally an excellent place to take anyone who would be arriving in San Diego by helicopter. Also, I'm sure, shiny blue object's mothers house.
posted by Blasdelb at 4:15 PM on November 8, 2010

The two small airports closest to downtown are Brown Field in Chula Vista and Montgomery Field in north central San Diego. Both are about a 20-30 minute drive to downtown. Can you not land at Lindbergh Field? That's our major airport, and it's very close to downtown.
posted by Lukenlogs at 10:30 PM on November 8, 2010

Best answer: The answers above seem pretty definitive. But if you go to "aerial" view, man, there sure are some things that look like a helipad nearby. I guess either they must just be for emergencies, or maybe more likely, I don't really know what a helipad looks like.
posted by IvyMike at 11:05 PM on November 8, 2010

Oh yeah, IvyMike, those are helipads (see this AskMe). Here is another one a bit closer to the convention center.
posted by exogenous at 5:08 AM on November 9, 2010

Best answer: Sorry, I messed up my link to the other helipad - here it is.
posted by exogenous at 5:11 AM on November 9, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, exogenous. That's quite close indeed!
posted by davidjmcgee at 1:58 PM on November 9, 2010

Response by poster: I phoned the San Diego Marriott, pictured above. Their response: "Technically, we do have one, but it's not accessible."

This is good enough for my purposes (which are, for what it's worth, fictional).

Resolved!
posted by davidjmcgee at 2:12 PM on November 9, 2010