Airport Question: Street Outlaws

[Doggtyred]

Any examples of such a gradual slide? All I can see is muncipalities just closing airports that are not federally obligated because they operate with a persistent loss.

GLS

Started off with three runways... ended up closing the east west one.. putting a convention center and Moody Gardens in on the footprint... They turned a bunch of other airport land into ballparks... and even took an old hangar and tried to use it for Schlitterbahn waterpark before it mysteriously burnt down during the parks construction.

Lots of encroachment...

 

[weilke]

GLS

Started off with three runways... ended up closing the east west one.. putting a convention center and Moody Gardens in on the footprint... They turned a bunch of other airport land into ballparks... and even took an old hangar and tried to use it for Schlitterbahn waterpark before it mysteriously burnt down during the parks construction.

Lots of encroachment...

Yeah, but building an amusement park is not the same as closing a runway for a couple of hours to do a drag race (RC plane event, kite flying, fire department practice....).

Scholes looks like a surplus facility. Was there ever enough civilian traffic to support multiple runways ?

 

[Doggtyred]

Yeah, but building an amusement park is not the same as closing a runway for a couple of hours to do a drag race (RC plane event, kite flying, fire department practice....).

Scholes looks like a surplus facility. Was there ever enough civilian traffic to support multiple runways ?

There clearly was enough to add an ATCT a few years back. Its actually a busy field. I'm not a fan of non-aviation use of facilities no matter what the pretext.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Yeah, but building an amusement park is not the same as closing a runway for a couple of hours to do a drag race (RC plane event, kite flying, fire department practice....).

Scholes looks like a surplus facility. Was there ever enough civilian traffic to support multiple runways ?

We love flying into Galveston, and do so 5 or 6 times a year, but have never shared the sky there with anyone. We often wonder how the controller stays awake.

It's a beautiful facility. Sad to see it so seldom used.

 

[Lowflynjack]

My friend recently flew his gyro into Anahuac, TX. Not only were cars parked on the runway, there was no NOTAM and when he tried to call one in, they told him he couldn't do it.

His story:
At Anahuac airport...157 cars are parked on an ACTIVE runway AT NIGHT for an event in town. No NOTAMs are in place. I call flight service to let them know. Apparently, because I am not the airport manager, I can't put a NOTAM in. Because of this, they just told me that they would do their best to let planes know. If a plane crashes in Anahuac tonight, I did everything I could to stop it. 1-800-WX-BRIEF
and 1-866-GA-SECURE both gave me the runaround. Oh, and P.S. most of the people picking up their cars are drunk and driving down the runway...and the Sheriff's deputies mocked me when I said something about it to them. Go figure...

For those interested in the follow up, on departure from T00 this morning, I missed a 1 foot by 2 foot pile of mud left behind by one of the trucks by about 1 foot at 45 miles per hour. The grounds were littered with beer cans and bottles, some trucks were still parked out there, and the 10 door lights were still up. Ruts were everywhere. This picture doesn't BEGIN to do justice to what was out there. Notice the tracks next to runway 30, and how close the tracks are to the 172 parked on the ramp. Nothing but a 12 year old marshaller to direct traffic...and he didn't even have a flashlight...AT NIGHT. I have never seen such negligence in general aviation.