Austin, TX

"James Blakely" wrote in
message ...
Hello cyber-friends:

I may be moving to the Austin, TX area in the near future and am looking
for
information about the area. I've already looked up airport information at
AirNav.

Regarding this area, what is the general attitude toward GA? Are any of
the
airports threatened to shut down due to neighbor complaints or
development?
Do any of the airports have hangar space available? (I mean open now, not
the ten year waiting list scene.) Is there a big GA presence?

I've been an ultralighter in the Austin area full-time since I lost my
medical 3 years ago so I'm not as up on the current situation with GA as I
was back then (I can tell you all about the attitude towards UL's - they're
hated more than fire ants and even crop dusters). But, as I recall, the
attitude was generally mixed. Most of the complaints centered around
airports near the city or its suburbs, such as Meuller (now R.I.P.) and
Austin Executive (now Dell Computer). The last major effort was, of course,
'relocating' Mueller to Bergstrom AFB, which is now ABIA (AUS).

Last I checked, what hangar space there was at AUS was prohibitively
expensive, and even tie-downs were costly and hard to come by. This may have
changed over the years, though.

So, if you're going to live in the city, like I do, you'll have to plan on
keeping your plane at a surrounding airport and doing a fair bit of driving.

Airports in the surrounding areas are actually far from being closed and are
even being renovated in some cases. Smithville airport (84R), for example,
has a nice new runway (although with a pair of huge, unfortunate ditches on
each side) and hangars are being planned. I fly out of Lockhart (50R), which
remains pretty busy and may have a hangar or two available (not sure about
that). San Marcos (HYI) is healthy and busy too. There's Georgetown airport
(GTU) to the north of the city, but it has been under the gun to be closed
or otherwise punished somehow by the surrounding community in the past. I'm
unsure about its present status but I imagine it's still going too, what
with the training operations that have been stationed there for some time.

So, GA is around but mostly in the surrounding areas. The hangar space
problem has eased a bit from the days when Executive and Meuller were closed
out from under, sending owners scurrying about trying to find places to keep
their planes.

You might check at the airports I mentioned to see if there's hangar space
(I can find out about 50R).

It looks like Houston is the closest class B airspace to Austin. I've
heard
that Houston is GA unfriendly. True?

I wouldn't go within 100NM of Houston in anything with a prop on it if I
didn't have to (I did do my IFR cross country to HOU though) . So I just
hang out over here in my trike .

Also, any thing you guys can tell me about the area aviation or not
aviation
related would be appreciated.

Again, I am more familiar with the ultralight scene than I am with GA. I can
tell you ultralights are the most hated things that fly through the air in
this area. I used to think I was a 2nd-class citizen when I flew Cessnas
after getting my private, but now that I fly UL's I realize I was treated
like Air Force One in that 150 I used to fly compared to how I'm treated
now. Anyway, just some interesting trivia for ya.....

LS

TIA.