Van's Air Force
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Austin Texas
- Thread starter MNRVFlyer
- Start date
Scott,
I'll send you a PM as I seem to have mis-used this section a bit. Apologies to DR.
paul
Overlord of Customer Service at SteinAir
[email protected]
I'll send you a PM as I seem to have mis-used this section a bit. Apologies to DR.
paul
Overlord of Customer Service at SteinAir
[email protected]
No sweat, Mon!
I moved the thread to the South Texas section. Talk away all you want!
best always,
d
I moved the thread to the South Texas section. Talk away all you want!
best always,
d
Austin
Austin is my spiritual home, but it isn't a GA friendly town. The city council and legislature have a long history of messing with each other, and GA is just one of the tools the city has used to bash the flying congresscritters with. You need to own a mint to operate out of Austin-Bergstrom.
So, unless you can afford Breakaway Airpark (NW Austin), you're stuck having to use airports farther out (Taylor, Lago Vista, San Marcos or Georgetown). Georgetown is overcrowded and dangerous (IMHO) during the peak. I did my checkride into there, and a local nut executed a downwind 180 in front of of a solo student pilot on final, and me turning final, and 3 others downwind. My examiner simply grunted "typical".
There's alot of relatively cheap lots and housing around Lago Vista (Rusty Allen airport), it's on the lake, and with the new tollways and light rail, you can go downtown on the weekend w/o 60 stoplights. If you live out somewhere like Lake Travis and have kids, be advised it's much more important to stay in 4A or 5A football than have a decent student-teacher ratio.
Taylor is a small down, San Marcos/New Braunfels are pretty nice medium-sized towns, halfway between Austin and San Antonio.
Boerne is another nice area, if you want a ranch, that's nice country. NW of San Antonio. There's another airpark down there somewhere, but have never seen it.
Austin is my spiritual home, but it isn't a GA friendly town. The city council and legislature have a long history of messing with each other, and GA is just one of the tools the city has used to bash the flying congresscritters with. You need to own a mint to operate out of Austin-Bergstrom.
So, unless you can afford Breakaway Airpark (NW Austin), you're stuck having to use airports farther out (Taylor, Lago Vista, San Marcos or Georgetown). Georgetown is overcrowded and dangerous (IMHO) during the peak. I did my checkride into there, and a local nut executed a downwind 180 in front of of a solo student pilot on final, and me turning final, and 3 others downwind. My examiner simply grunted "typical".
There's alot of relatively cheap lots and housing around Lago Vista (Rusty Allen airport), it's on the lake, and with the new tollways and light rail, you can go downtown on the weekend w/o 60 stoplights. If you live out somewhere like Lake Travis and have kids, be advised it's much more important to stay in 4A or 5A football than have a decent student-teacher ratio.
Taylor is a small down, San Marcos/New Braunfels are pretty nice medium-sized towns, halfway between Austin and San Antonio.
Boerne is another nice area, if you want a ranch, that's nice country. NW of San Antonio. There's another airpark down there somewhere, but have never seen it.
As a native Minnesotan, now "stuck" in Texas these past 25 years, I have property at Kestrel, north of San Antonio where Louise and I plan to build and live on the runway. Yeah, we can get the occasional rain shower or two, but I have to admit that as much as I enjoy snow, I don't miss having it for five months of the year!
Paul
Paul
Probably bad input but here goes
I was assigned on a project at Ft. Hood and lived in a motel most of the time in Killeen. My only other time in Texas was Lackland, AFB for Basic Training. I did appreciate being able to see the Alamo while in Basic, and I was surprised at the hills and trees in the area between Ft. Hood and Austin. I always reported back to my wife in California that I thought it was a nice area. It was one of the general areas we studied when I was approaching retirement. We also looked at several other places and ultimately chose another location but we never found anything distastful about it. A few weeks ago we flew to Taylor, Texas for a 100 mile air race and we went to Austin to tour the city. We really were impressed with the LBJ Museum & Library but I came away with the feeling that I personally would no longer want to live there - but then I wouldn't want to live in Las Vegas either unless maybe you are talking about New Mexico. My hot years were in the 60s so it could be an age thing. Good luck with your choice.
Bob Axsom
I was assigned on a project at Ft. Hood and lived in a motel most of the time in Killeen. My only other time in Texas was Lackland, AFB for Basic Training. I did appreciate being able to see the Alamo while in Basic, and I was surprised at the hills and trees in the area between Ft. Hood and Austin. I always reported back to my wife in California that I thought it was a nice area. It was one of the general areas we studied when I was approaching retirement. We also looked at several other places and ultimately chose another location but we never found anything distastful about it. A few weeks ago we flew to Taylor, Texas for a 100 mile air race and we went to Austin to tour the city. We really were impressed with the LBJ Museum & Library but I came away with the feeling that I personally would no longer want to live there - but then I wouldn't want to live in Las Vegas either unless maybe you are talking about New Mexico. My hot years were in the 60s so it could be an age thing. Good luck with your choice.
Bob Axsom
Sorry, but Austin is now full. The Firemarshall has declaired that it is over its current occupancy rate. (Just kidding) there might be room for one more aviator somewhere around here.
Oh and Paul, appears that a lot has happened since that horse back ride in Big Bend.. congrats to you and Louise. Hope to see yall again next year.
Oh and Paul, appears that a lot has happened since that horse back ride in Big Bend.. congrats to you and Louise. Hope to see yall again next year.
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I love austin
Economy is booming as well as anywhere else in the country. Realestate has shot up so depending on where you come from this may or may not be expensive. Since it sounds like you are planning a retirement move, you may not worry about job growth, but it is important to your property value (i think). The local Gov. loves to tax you as well, so compare those rates.
I live in Breakaway Airpark and hope to never move. But as stated before, GA in austin is not the best. There are other airports on the outskirts that are great GA RV places and the town is quickly growing to them. My opinion would be look at Central Texas as a whole. Take a map and draw circle with 2 hr drive radius. That will cover San Antonio, Kerrville(maybe), Fredericksburg, lakeway,Georgtown,san marcus,new braunfels, taylor,killeen, llano,bastrop, smithville,....
Examples;
Cross Country Estates: no one mentioned, but rather recent fly-in community just NNE of austin. Check it out.
Kitty Hill: N of austin not fly-in community "yet" but not ex*****ive to hanger plane
Taylor used to seem far out, but with new toll roads lots of people live in Taylor and work in Austin. I compare Taylor to Plano up in Dallas. 20 years ago, way out, now people think of Plano as Dallas.
Georgtown: will be a rather large airport soon if not already. I think hangers are on a waiting list.
Spicewood: on Lake Travis and a runway. In my opinion, best of both worlds. Restrictions not to strick (could be good or bad).
Lakeway: never been there. Read enough to know they don't really want much traffic there. No night operations either
Lago Vista,: good 45 min from downtown, but lake views, hills, and nice airport. I like lago vista.
Lockhart, San Marcus, New Braunfells: all south of austin, but the way Austin is growing, really not that far. All great airports in my opinion.
I see Georgtown, taylor, san marcus really growing with the VLJ and general aviation and Austin Berk. handling mostly commercial LARGE jets.
I could go on, but email me if you want more. Most of what i said has already been stated. Austin the city is not GA friendly but just around the outskirts are some great airports and if you want to venture into the Hill Country (which i would do if i could afford), There are lots of nice county airports and some nice fly-in communities. Many people are buying up the hill country to have their "rance" so property values out there are skyrocketing.
Look up Silver wings ranch or Kestral. 2 hrs out of Austin is Fredericksburg, check it out.
Good luck and hope i did not ramble too much. I do love it here, but when someone ask me about where to take lessons or hanger a plane, i pause and think about it... it is just not an easy answer. Come visit Austin before you make up your mind.
Jeff H
austin tx
Economy is booming as well as anywhere else in the country. Realestate has shot up so depending on where you come from this may or may not be expensive. Since it sounds like you are planning a retirement move, you may not worry about job growth, but it is important to your property value (i think). The local Gov. loves to tax you as well, so compare those rates.
I live in Breakaway Airpark and hope to never move. But as stated before, GA in austin is not the best. There are other airports on the outskirts that are great GA RV places and the town is quickly growing to them. My opinion would be look at Central Texas as a whole. Take a map and draw circle with 2 hr drive radius. That will cover San Antonio, Kerrville(maybe), Fredericksburg, lakeway,Georgtown,san marcus,new braunfels, taylor,killeen, llano,bastrop, smithville,....
Examples;
Cross Country Estates: no one mentioned, but rather recent fly-in community just NNE of austin. Check it out.
Kitty Hill: N of austin not fly-in community "yet" but not ex*****ive to hanger plane
Taylor used to seem far out, but with new toll roads lots of people live in Taylor and work in Austin. I compare Taylor to Plano up in Dallas. 20 years ago, way out, now people think of Plano as Dallas.
Georgtown: will be a rather large airport soon if not already. I think hangers are on a waiting list.
Spicewood: on Lake Travis and a runway. In my opinion, best of both worlds. Restrictions not to strick (could be good or bad).
Lakeway: never been there. Read enough to know they don't really want much traffic there. No night operations either
Lago Vista,: good 45 min from downtown, but lake views, hills, and nice airport. I like lago vista.
Lockhart, San Marcus, New Braunfells: all south of austin, but the way Austin is growing, really not that far. All great airports in my opinion.
I see Georgtown, taylor, san marcus really growing with the VLJ and general aviation and Austin Berk. handling mostly commercial LARGE jets.
I could go on, but email me if you want more. Most of what i said has already been stated. Austin the city is not GA friendly but just around the outskirts are some great airports and if you want to venture into the Hill Country (which i would do if i could afford), There are lots of nice county airports and some nice fly-in communities. Many people are buying up the hill country to have their "rance" so property values out there are skyrocketing.
Look up Silver wings ranch or Kestral. 2 hrs out of Austin is Fredericksburg, check it out.
Good luck and hope i did not ramble too much. I do love it here, but when someone ask me about where to take lessons or hanger a plane, i pause and think about it... it is just not an easy answer. Come visit Austin before you make up your mind.
Jeff H
austin tx
LifeofReiley
Well Known Member
Cross Country Estates, TX
Examples;
Cross Country Estates: no one mentioned, but rather recent fly-in community just NNE of austin. Check it out.
Not so recent... but there are a couple of lots left. Nice community for sure, just sold a lot I owned in the community. Hurry, they are just about sold out!
Examples;
Cross Country Estates: no one mentioned, but rather recent fly-in community just NNE of austin. Check it out.
Not so recent... but there are a couple of lots left. Nice community for sure, just sold a lot I owned in the community. Hurry, they are just about sold out!
FredMagare
Well Known Member
Paul,
I moved to the Kyle (just south of Austin) from California and I love it! As others have pointed out, check out the various airports and/or airparks you think you may like to fly from and start looking there first. I've flown from San Marcos and New Braunfels and like New Braunfels a little better but there's quite a bit of construction going on at San Marcos so it's likely to go through "perfect" and blast into crowded in the next ten or fifteen years.
If your boy is still in high school Hays CISD (the district in which I work) is considered one of the best school districts in the area. (Or so I keep hearing. I don't know about other districts but I like this one!)
Anyway, if you opt for New Braunfels, that puts you smack dab in the middle of Austin and San Antonio which is about 30 minutes from each. Small town living with big city fun either way you go!
Good luck!
Fred
I moved to the Kyle (just south of Austin) from California
and I love it! As others have pointed out, check out the various airports and/or airparks you think you may like to fly from and start looking there first. I've flown from San Marcos and New Braunfels and like New Braunfels a little better but there's quite a bit of construction going on at San Marcos so it's likely to go through "perfect" and blast into crowded in the next ten or fifteen years.If your boy is still in high school Hays CISD (the district in which I work) is considered one of the best school districts in the area. (Or so I keep hearing. I don't know about other districts but I like this one!)
Anyway, if you opt for New Braunfels, that puts you smack dab in the middle of Austin and San Antonio which is about 30 minutes from each. Small town living with big city fun either way you go!
Good luck!
Fred
i live in manchaca (around here it's pronounced MAN-shack) and fly out of either bergstrom (aus) or san marcos (hyi). as others have said, the city of austin is pretty much anti-g.a. but don't include the air traffic controllers in that -- aus has some of the friendliest atc's in the world. the 1/3 pa-28 i own until the rv is finished is hangared at aus. hangar price isn't so bad -- $300/mo, but fuel is outrageous (about $6/gal). but of course, it's only 22nm to taylor (t74) where the fuel is about $3.70/gal.
i'm building a hangar at san marcos (hyi) to finish my r.v. san marcos airport has 3 runways (well, 6 if you count both ends), and although there is frequently a good mix of traffic, most of the pilots seem to be more "mannerly" than those at georgetown (which someone else mentioned.) i try to avoid georgetown (gtu) if possible. the drive for me is 25 minutes to either aus or hyi. (manchaca is on the south side of austin.)
eaa 187 is the local chapter, and although most of the members are on the north side, there are quite a few of us that live south.
lockhart (50r) is 10nm east of san marcos. there's a whole bunch of rv'ers at 50r.
hth,
john
i'm building a hangar at san marcos (hyi) to finish my r.v. san marcos airport has 3 runways (well, 6 if you count both ends
), and although there is frequently a good mix of traffic, most of the pilots seem to be more "mannerly" than those at georgetown (which someone else mentioned.) i try to avoid georgetown (gtu) if possible. the drive for me is 25 minutes to either aus or hyi. (manchaca is on the south side of austin.)eaa 187 is the local chapter, and although most of the members are on the north side, there are quite a few of us that live south.
lockhart (50r) is 10nm east of san marcos. there's a whole bunch of rv'ers at 50r.
hth,
john
PainterJohn
Well Known Member
c177tx said:
Tanya
Well Known Member
Two suggestions:
1) Get on the hangar waiting list at any airport you are considering that has one. Georgetown and Taylor are two that come to mind immediately. You can always refuse the hangar when it comes up if you aren't ready or decided on a different airport.
2) Make sure you bring a snow shovel with you. Hang it in your garage, and take a look at it when the weather gets a little too warm. (Probably appropriate for Vegas, too)
Another consideration, Georgetown will have a tower soon, scheduled for October but it has seen its share of delays. I am hoping that will help with some of the unsavory behavior.
I can't imagine a better place to live.
Another MN native
1) Get on the hangar waiting list at any airport you are considering that has one. Georgetown and Taylor are two that come to mind immediately. You can always refuse the hangar when it comes up if you aren't ready or decided on a different airport.
2) Make sure you bring a snow shovel with you. Hang it in your garage, and take a look at it when the weather gets a little too warm. (Probably appropriate for Vegas, too)
Another consideration, Georgetown will have a tower soon, scheduled for October but it has seen its share of delays. I am hoping that will help with some of the unsavory behavior.
I can't imagine a better place to live.
Another MN native
Tim's Airpark
I stole the image from this cool site:
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_Austin_E.htm
When started flying it was called "Tim's Airpark". Great place, about ten minutes from where I grew up. I could ride my bicycle there.c177tx said:
I stole the image from this cool site:
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_Austin_E.htm
I miss Tims
I got my license at Tims in 1968 when was really out in the sticks. In fact, I went to ground school in the little building marked "shed" in the above drawing. The cost of my entire training, books, school and all flying was $432.00.
There was also an airport off Koenig Lane just south of where the DPS is. Doc Hales flying service. It's old hangar was used as a nursery for many years after that. My dad flew arial photo missions out of there in the 30's and 40's.
It's a walk down memory lane to read about Tims and Birdsnest.
I now live in Georgia but my whole family is still in Austin as is my heart. If it just wasn't sooooo crowded it would be at the top of my list.
As it is, I now have 5 traffic signals to contend with in the town I live it. It's like the Austin of old...
Like the old days though, the flying community today is just a great as the one we remember when we learned to fly.
I got my license at Tims in 1968 when was really out in the sticks. In fact, I went to ground school in the little building marked "shed" in the above drawing. The cost of my entire training, books, school and all flying was $432.00.
There was also an airport off Koenig Lane just south of where the DPS is. Doc Hales flying service. It's old hangar was used as a nursery for many years after that. My dad flew arial photo missions out of there in the 30's and 40's.
It's a walk down memory lane to read about Tims and Birdsnest.
I now live in Georgia but my whole family is still in Austin as is my heart. If it just wasn't sooooo crowded it would be at the top of my list.
As it is, I now have 5 traffic signals to contend with in the town I live it. It's like the Austin of old...
Like the old days though, the flying community today is just a great as the one we remember when we learned to fly.
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PainterJohn
Well Known Member
I thought there was another one, north of the Yager area. A turf strip, with about 5 or 6 hangers, and a few tie downs.. Pflugerville area perhaps. The "old timers" mention it from time to time around here. Perhaps im getting them confused.... (slowly becoming and old timer myself i think HAHA)
