Austin Area Things to See

[Stewartb]

I delivered the lumber when Dixie Chicken was being built along with the other places along the street. And I haven't been there in years, but a lot of people seem to like that area so I will send folks there. I bet it has changed a lot. Do they still have the rattle snakes inside?

I had pretty much left the area by 2000. About 3 times a year I would go back to visit my mom, but she left the area in 2011. I still get back there occasionally to visit friends. I'll plan trips when the students are gone along with the summer heat and humidity, which doesn't leave much time to visit.....

New dorms across the street on campus. New high rise apartments next door, adjacent to, and behind. It's getting very urban. I don't expect Northgate to survive the growth for much longer. Not the way it is, at least. All the married grad student housing is gone. The hotel on the corner of University and Texas, too. Replaced with mixed use multi-story buildings all the way from Northgate to South Texas. When I came north a few weeks ago there were 4 tower cranes within a stone's throw of the Chicken. The times they are a changin.

 

[Zeldman]

New dorms across the street on campus. New high rise apartments next door, adjacent to, and behind. It's getting very urban. I don't expect Northgate to survive the growth for much longer. Not the way it is, at least. All the married grad student housing is gone. The hotel on the corner of University and Texas, too. Replaced with mixed use multi-story buildings all the way from Northgate to South Texas. When I came north a few weeks ago there were 4 tower cranes within a stone's throw of the Chicken. The times they are a changin.

With 66,000 plus students they need to house them some where. I remember when the student count hit 7500. I also remember the uproar coming from both towns when the first co--ed dorm opened up.

My main hang out place during the off season from racing was the Chicken Oil Company. Back then it was a biker hang out, but they had great burgers, the Death Burger was the best, plus the coldest longnecks in town.

I hate to see northgate as I knew it go away, but with more folks coming in everyday some things will have to change.

The hotel at Texas and University, I believe it started out as a Ramada Inn but I don't really remember. That was the corner that students would line up to hitch hike either north or south for weekends or holidays, back when they were not allowed to have cars.

Like they say, you can't ever go home again....

 

[zaitcev]

Weather in Austin was very dubious yesterday. Low layer. The rain to the northwest was intense like in Florida. I have to ask, how normal it is?

I talked to a local pilot on Friday and he said he got Instrument Rating just to penetrate those layers. Uh-oh.

To be fair, a sandstorm closed in on Albuquerque by end of the day, so even if you manage get out and deviate to the south, you'd still need to camp out in Lubbock.

 

[BigBadLou]

Weather in Austin was very dubious yesterday. Low layer. The rain to the northwest was intense like in Florida. I have to ask, how normal it is?

Not normal. Normally it is hot, humid and SKC. Sometimes a front comes across to cool the air down for a day but that does not happen often.
This year has been a little flaky, though, definitely not 100% normal.

 

[aggie06]

The hotel on the corner of University and Texas

That hotel actually was an off campus dorm for a while. I lived there my freshman year and had a ton of fun. It eventually lost out to all the newer, fancier off campus dorms, so they tried going back to a hotel and eventually tore it down to build new stuff.

Chicken Oil was definitely the best burger in town, followed closely by Koppe Bridge.

 

[danhagan]

We're starting to stretch the concept of "Austin Area" things to see!

I fly a Tiger so anything within about an hour or a little over is fine.

Weather in Austin was very dubious yesterday. Low layer. The rain to the northwest was intense like in Florida. I have to ask, how normal it is?

To be fair, a sandstorm closed in on Albuquerque by end of the day, so even if you manage get out and deviate to the south, you'd still need to camp out in Lubbock.

Departed last Monday the 19th. There was a big storm up near Waco moving south. For us guys from the desert, this is unique. Thought for sure I'd hit some rain, but stayed dry and it cleared near Llano.

 

[Timbeck2]

It's a very reasonable flight from Austin. I used to fly from San Antonio to KRAS (or RKP) for lunch.

The airport manager at KRKP is one of my best friends. Mike Geer. We went through ATC school together in the same class. Tell him Tim sent ya!

 

[danhagan]

Update Austin:

KEDC Austin Executive is going to be a Class D soon (they're building a tower now)

Personally, I hate most Class D fields. Only time I have ever had issues with controllers has been at these fields due to training - and everytime it took a visit to the cab to talk to the supervisor to straighten things out. Coming in, Llano had more traffic and guys flying left traffic to runway 17 (guess they don't know that RP 17 means on the sectional).

 

[zaitcev]

Update Austin:

KEDC Austin Executive is going to be a Class D soon (they're building a tower now)

Personally, I hate most Class D fields. Only time I have ever had issues with controllers has been at these fields due to training - and everytime it took a visit to the cab to talk to the supervisor to straighten things out. Coming in, Llano had more traffic and guys flying left traffic to runway 17 (guess they don't know that RP 17 means on the sectional).

I don't "hate" ATC at Class D as such. I never had any issues with the satellite field of Albuquerque, KAEG. However, I often run into issues at Santa Fe (KSAF).

Ironically, I think that KAEG probably does not need the tower - the traffic is not that intense there. Well, they have CH-47 at the field, but those guys seem quite harmless if you give them way and observe basic precautions against the rotor wash. I do not know of anyone flipped over by them and I don't think it's really the benefit of the tower control. But KSAF has scheduled service with jets and probably needs the tower, just to tell us when to circle on downwind for the fast movers. Sadly.

I don't have an opinion about the tower at KEDC. It may turn out good, or may turn out rotten, depending on the culture among the controllers and managers. And there's precious little we can do to influence that.

 

[Everskyward]

Go watch the bats come out at dusk. That was pretty cool

I was sad that I missed the bats due to the fact that I visited Austin in December. The walk along the river is nice, though.

 

[BigBadLou]

Update Austin:

KEDC Austin Executive is going to be a Class D soon (they're building a tower now)

Personally, I hate most Class D fields. Only time I have ever had issues with controllers has been at these fields due to training - and everytime it took a visit to the cab to talk to the supervisor to straighten things out. Coming in, Llano had more traffic and guys flying left traffic to runway 17 (guess they don't know that RP 17 means on the sectional).

Dan, do not despair, not all tower controllers are the way you describe them.
If you can, stop by KGTU next time your're in town. Heck, let me know and I'll take you up into the cab to even talk to them and shake their hands. Those guys are awesome and one of them even won the "Best Controller Of The Year" award.
Sorry to hear you've had bad experiences at towered airports, that's not supposed to happen and reporting it to the QA supervisor is the only way to get it fixed. I too had my share of grumpy controllers at other towered fields, often being wrong or just out of line for one reason or another. But we are all humans.
Again, let's stop by KGTU next time you're in town, you'll like it. Beer's on me.

 

[danhagan]

Dan, do not despair, not all tower controllers are the way you describe them.
If you can, stop by KGTU next time your're in town. Heck, let me know and I'll take you up into the cab to even talk to them and shake their hands. Those guys are awesome and one of them even won the "Best Controller Of The Year" award.
Sorry to hear you've had bad experiences at towered airports, that's not supposed to happen and reporting it to the QA supervisor is the only way to get it fixed. I too had my share of grumpy controllers at other towered fields, often being wrong or just out of line for one reason or another. But we are all humans.
Again, let's stop by KGTU next time you're in town, you'll like it. Beer's on me.

Been flying near 800 hours and most of the controllers are great, especially Class C. Just the training facilities are a real pain. Our Class C had a new trainee a couple of months ago. All traffic got diverted over Juarez Mexico, complaint was he could only handle one at a time in his space.