Objective: To land at every public airport in Texas.
Time: August 1998 – May 1999
Airports: Visited a total of 380 airports
TEXAS BY AIR-During a fuel stop in Livingston the usual question came up between the attendant and myself “where are you coming from and where are you headed?” After giving my response, he called to a bystander “come and see this guy that has nothing to do.” I had to laugh as he was right, but what do you do with a Cl52 and no particular place to go? My answer to him had been that I was on an odyssey to land at every public airport in Texas and he was number 226. While I did end up completing this quest, what became more important as time went on, was that I was seeing just about every square mile of Texas from 1,000 agl. With very few legs over 30 nm I normally climbed up to pattern altitude and got ready for the next one. Not being a writer, it’s difficult to describe the beauty of Texas. Be assured though that all areas have beauty in their own way, and each town its own personality. The crystal clear skies of the Panhandle, the woods of East Texas, the coastal areas of the Valley and the intimidating deserts of far West Texas, to name a few. The Hill Country has to be my favorite though, what a great place to have our capitol. My plane is based at DallasAddison, so I had a good central point to work from. Basically, I split the state on the 97th meridian and worked East and West between parallels of latitude to keep track of where I had been. I have been flying in Texas since 1968, but had only landed at 24 airports before starting last August and finishing in May of this year. Flying time was approximately 150 hours and estimated distance flown at over 12,000nm. Alvin got the prize for the shortest (runway) 1420 feet and Amarillo the longest at 13,502. DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) had to be the most memorable, landing there at 2:00 a.m. and seeing those four big parallel runways all lit up on final, or maybe it just seemed that way as it was the only airport to charge me a landing fee! Got in a few before they closed and the total (airports) landed at was 380. All in all, it was a grand experience and would recommend to anyone that this is a great way to see our giant state.
Joe A. Chesky, Jr., CFI
Editor’s Note: Joe A. Cheskey Jr., lives in Carrollton, Texas, and actually landed at his first Texas airport in 1967 in Addison, Texas. And, we are hoping that Joe will have more to tell us in future Wingtips about Texas’ notorious remote landing strips. Thanks Joe,for a wonderful account of your travels!
