McGehee's Catfish Restaurant
 

Almost due north of Dallas-Ft. Worth, on the Red river, with it's own landing strip.

Used to fly there back in the mid-1980's, and loved it. :)

Is it still there? Any Texans or Okies going there these days?

Comments from Air Nav
 

Indicate that the runway is closed. Not sure about the restaurant.

McGeehee's
 

The restaurant is open but the runway has been closed for a few years after one or two fatalities. The real show stopper was the C182 that flew right over the huge X's on the runway that was being reworked, landed in the soft dirt, and flipped. Not sure if he was one of the fatalities but that stupid pilot trick helped shut the runway forever!

A/FD says runway is closed indefinitely
 

I used to go in there too in a Cub back in the early 1990's and loved it. Moved back to DFW area 2 years ago and have been wanting to go up there but did not realize the runway was closed. Guess I'll have to (ugh) drive if I want some of their great catfish.

NTSB
 

According to the database there were two accidents in 2007. One was the 182 mentioned above (flown by a 27,500 hour pilot), but the previous month a Baron touched down short of the strip and ended up with one fatality.

Even if you have to drive its worth the the trip for the restaurant! (I take Wisconsin geology students there when we do fieldtrips to Oklahoma)

Why would they close it because of accidents? I guess it is really a question of who "they" is... Did the FAA close it or the owner of the runway?

I read on another forum somewhere that the owners closed it due to insurance reasons... apparently after so many prangs it was getting prohibitively expensive. Not that the crunches were the airport owners fault; it was a challenging strip to fly into, but not a big deal if you know what you're doing. After reading through the many NTSB reports from there over the years, it appears that some of these guys didn't...

You are correct! The owner said the insurance cost after the major accidents became prohibitive for them. The Feds didn't close the runway, the owner did.

I 've landed my Cherokee 140 there several times over the years gone by and for the most part is was like just about like landing at any other grass strip nestled in trees. Except one day, when there was a very strong gusty crosswind out of the east, when I was about to flare, I encountered some really hairy turbulence/rotor effect that required rapid aileron input all the way to one lock, then the other side to keep level and I still thought I was about to drag a wingtip, and gave it full power to initiate a go-around, and then the turbulence quit as abruptly as it had begun and I was able to complete the landing normally. It sure was an eye-opener and adrenalin-maker. Each time I landed there after that one, I was extra-ready to handle any surprises, but never again encountered any weird winds there.

I've flew in there a few times when I lived in Oklahoma. It was definitely a challenging strip. There was a sort of dog leg in the middle of the strip as well as a road that crossed it. Looking at a sectional, it appears to be open, but who knows. One thing I noticed about flying in Oklahoma, is that the winds were always rough when they were coming out of the east.