Spruce Creek Fly In Community has other attractions besides aviation. Yes, there are over 1500 Hangars and a 4000ft Runway with an active EAA Chapter plus many private builders, but it is also a wonderful Golfing community and Safe & Secure Retirement Community with a very active Social Life. I fail to understand your reasoning for your question.
Hello — I am a Spruce Creek resident.
Spruce Creek has about 1,600 residences. A simple breakdown looks like this: roughly 600 homes with attached hangars, 600–700 golf‑fairway homes without hangars, and another 500–600 townhomes, a few of which have Plane Ports. We also have many commercial hangars (around 200), most of them owned by residents. This means you can live on the golf course and keep your airplane or helicopter just a short golf‑cart ride away in your own or a rented commercial hangar.
Our runway is a 4,000' × 170' paved, lighted strip in excellent condition, with an RNAV approach to Runway 06. We hold a safety briefing almost every Saturday at 8 AM. After the briefing, the crowd usually disperses to fly to breakfast at various spots around Florida. We also have regular fly‑outs on Wednesday mornings and Thursday for lunch.
EAA Chapter 288 is one of the largest—if not
the largest—chapters in the world, with its own 7,000‑sq‑ft hangar. The chapter meets regularly with guest speakers and has recently added many new events and capabilities. We have a STEM program, Young Eagles flights, and a growing list of social events including dinner cookouts, morning breakfasts, and movie nights in the hangar. In 2022, we upgraded our aging simulator to two new FAA‑certified simulators, and we have volunteer instructors who live in Spruce Creek and enjoy teaching. The simulators are FAA‑approved for logging time and offered at excellent rates.
With our new hangar, we’ve been able to build out a tool crib, and members have donated equipment such as Bridgeport milling machines, brakes and shears, compressors, airplane scales, propeller vibration balancers and a sand blasting booth. We’re also looking to add one or two 3D printers. We typically award Ray Scholarships each year, often adding one or two more through chapter donations. we mentor the young people through the program and beyond. It’s a great time for our chapter.
While the community centers around aviation, you don’t need to be aviation‑focused to live here. Many non=aviation residents simply enjoy the community, clubhouse, golf, tennis, and pickleball. The environment is low‑key and mostly casual.
For us, moving down in 2018 from New Jersey was a wonderful change after our kids graduated from college.