Austin, TX area airparks

zaitcev

zaitcev

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Pete Zaitcev
I asked a bit in the old thread about the area and the hangar situation, but here's a tangent: it hangars are impossible to rent, how about an airpark?

So far I identified these:

Breakaway Park in Cedar Park, its airport is known as "Sasser" for some reason {Update: in memory of Hank Sasser}. Its location may be a blessing and a curse, since it's smack in the middle of a town. I've never seen an airpark in a city before. Properties are probably stupendously expensive, but beyond that, does anyone know if it's in danger of being closed by Cedar Park City Hall?

Lakeway (3R9) - only 30-40 miles away, which is basically nothing even though the freeway terminates short. Someone is selling a house there asked for $1200k. A while back someone sold another house for $500k though. Anyone knows what is the situation there? Squabbling litigants poisoning waters?

Spicewood (88R) - A bit further away than Lakeway, but not a deal-breaker. Mostly a normal airport, but it appears that something known as Windermere Airpark is attached. That one may be a subject to "through-the-gate access" silliness. Any information about it?

Huber Airpark (E70) - 70 nm S of AUS, near Seguin. Nothing is known about that one. It's very far away, but a major road goes to Seguin.

White Wings (3TS1) - Not officially an airpark, but has several of structures attached with taxiways, so perhaps someone has properties there. A mysterious place.

Kestrel (1T7) - 30 nm N of San Antonio, so it's actually on the other side of San Marcos. Probably too far from Austin to be viable.

Please let me know if I'm missing anything, perhaps more conventional airports with attached airparks. And I'd love some contacts with people who are familiar with the goings-on: trustworthy realtors, airport managers, EAA chapter leaders.

UPDATE:

Cross Country (07TS) - Grass, located between Georgetown and Taylor.

Liberty Hill (XS12) - new (started around 2012), rental hangars, they still sell plots; further away from downtown than even Spicewood, but is linked with a straighter, faster road, and is close to the northern suburbia. -- Update: In 2018 the airpark project in Liberty Hill has collapsed and Frank replaced the hangar lots with an RV park.

Fentress (XS90) - New site, only 1 house is completed. Between and to the south of San Marcos and Lockhart.

UPDATE:

Lago Vista (RYW) is a de-facto airpark. Almost every hangar has an apartment attached at the back or on top.

UPDATE:

In 2019, development at Salado has picked up. In September, they reported more than 1/3 of lots sold! The proximity to I-35 may be a factor. They also replaced the ID (73TA) with a new one (2TX).
 
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Breakaway doesn't appear to be in any danger of closing. On a nice day it's a pretty active airport, lots of planes taking off and landing. Seems to be an established neighborhood with both older and much newer homes. But that's an assumption made just by the amount of activity I see and the lack of properties for sale within the neighborhood.
 
There was a house with hangar for sale at Cross Country just north of Hutto. They occasionally come up. We looked but it was too small for us. There are some nice places there, active grass runway. Very rural...for now...Hutto is moving that way.
I cannot give you any contact information..

Here is a website of texas airpark properties

https://airparktx.com/
 
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zaitcev said:
Its location may be a blessing and a curse, since it's smack in the middle of a town. I've never seen an airpark in a city before.
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FYI, not unheard of. Here are two suburban airparks I know about in Texas:
Polly Ranch (Friendswood, TX, SE side of Houston metroplex)
Aero Country (McKinney, TX, N side of Dallas metroplex)

Probably lots of others.
 
zaitcev said:
Breakway Park in Cedar Park, its airport is known as "Sasser" for some reason. Its location may be a blessing and a curse, since it's smack in the middle of a town. I've never seen an airpark in a city before. Properties are probably stupendously expensive, but beyond that, does anyone know if it's in danger of being closed by Cedar Park City Hall?
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The official name of the airport is Hank Sasser at Breakaway Park. Hank was a young man who died in a plane crash in 2014 at the way too young age of 24. His uncle Mike Sasser lives at Breakaway, and the airport was renamed to honor Hank, who was truly a leader trying to change people's lives. They are still changing lives through the Hank Sasser Foundation, offering scholarships to emerging leaders.

It is not in danger of being closed, but it's very expensive to live there.

Cross Country Estates is a little more laid back and more in the country. I have a few friends who live there and like it.
 
I live within about a mile of Breakaway Park, and I'm not aware of any push to close the airstrip. If I didn't live on a great street with awesome neighbors, I would be looking for a home there myself. Planes fly over my home regularly and I haven't heard a peep from neighbors complaining.

Another airpark that is fairly new is Liberty Hill Air Ranch. I don't know much about it, but the home sites seem reasonably priced, and there have been major improvements in accessibility out there. The 183 toll way is almost completed to Highway 29, which is the road through Liberty Hill. My favorite gun range is also nearby. :)
 
GTO1969 said:
Another airpark that is fairly new is Liberty Hill Air Ranch. I don't know much about it, but the home sites seem reasonably priced, and there have been major improvements in accessibility out there. The 183 toll way is almost completed to Highway 29, which is the road through Liberty Hill. My favorite gun range is also nearby. :)
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I forgot about this one! A friend of mine is thinking of building there. They want you to make your house look like a hangar, so that would be great for most of us... maybe not so much for the wives that want a house to look like a house!
 
When Breakaway was built it was way out of town! The prices on the runway are really high by Austin metro area standards, but probably seem cheap compared to California for nice large lot house on a paved runway.

A friend is building a hangar at Liberty Hill.
 
I live at cross country, great community! Message me if you have any questions.

-Dan
 
>> Please let me know if I'm missing anything, perhaps more conventional airports with attached airparks

(XS90) Fentress Airpark - 15 miles east of San Marcos, just 1 mile off the 130 toll road. Just one home on the park now, runway is basically owned by Skydive San Marcos, which runs jumpers Thursday - Sunday. 7 1 acres plots still for sale, with 7 already sold. I looked at a property there but decided against it.
 
Speaking of Cross Country, it seems like a nice place, but it sits on a grass runway. I'm contemplating landing there the coming Wednesday, to check the place out. Not sure if I should though. It's going to be my first time on grass and it's "only" 2500 ft.
 
zaitcev said:
Speaking of Cross Country, it seems like a nice place, but it sits on a grass runway. I'm contemplating landing there the coming Wednesday, to check the place out. Not sure if I should though. It's going to be my first time on grass and it's "only" 2500 ft.
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What kind of plane? You can fly into T74 or GTU since it's about equal distance between both. Both have rental cars, but T74 says it must stay in city limits. Not sure about GTU.
 
Lowflynjack said:
What kind of plane? You can fly into T74 or GTU since it's about equal distance between both. Both have rental cars, but T74 says it must stay in city limits. Not sure about GTU.
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I was going to camp out at EDC. It's a Mooney M20E. Mostly I'm concerned that I'd run into a gopher hole and end with a $20k for engine teardown. But Cross Country seems like the only airpark up north. Liberty Hill looks absolutely empty. Just a couple of big hangars left over from the times it was a school.
 
zaitcev said:
I was going to camp out at EDC. It's a Mooney M20E. Mostly I'm concerned that I'd run into a gopher hole and end with a $20k for engine teardown. But Cross Country seems like the only airpark up north. Liberty Hill looks absolutely empty. Just a couple of big hangars left over from the times it was a school.
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They maintain the runway there very well. I know a guy there that flies a Mooney. I wouldn't worry about gopher holes. EDC is a nice place to hang out though!
 
Pete, what do you fly? A PA-28 with just one guy onboard should have no problem to get into and out of Cross Country unless it is very muddy and soft.
You can always practice at EDC on the 1550x25 rwy. Before any trips to 2500' rwys, I would land there first to prove to myself that I can. :)
Let me know if you want company to land at CC, I have hundreds of hours in PA-28s.
EDIT: Nm, stupid me, now I noticed that you mentioned a Mooney. When are you planning on coming? Maybe you can borrow a car from EDC to go look? Or I can pick you up at EDC and we can go together. In my car or plane, doesn't matter.

They closed the grass strip by Leander, it was sold to a developer. And it's been so long, I cannot even recall the name anymore. Dang. (Kittie Hill??)
But he Liberty Hill private strip is booming. Overfly and you will see that they broke ground, dog out and poured slab for two rows of hangars already. :)
If you need, I can put you in contact with the owner, he is a straight shooter and a nice guy.
 
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Lou, is it reasonable to live at Liberty Hill and drive into downtown? Looking on a map, it seems to be untenable for a commute, but, as a local, what's your opinion? (not trying to hijack the thread).

Dean
 
codeeno said:
Lou, is it reasonable to live at Liberty Hill and drive into downtown? Looking on a map, it seems to be untenable for a commute, but, as a local, what's your opinion? (not trying to hijack the thread).

Dean
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Thousands of crazy people do this every day for hours. Why not you? LOL
Reasonable? Not in my own book. (and you saw just one line above that I call those who consider this "reasonable" plain crazy - everybody has different values and opinions, mine is just mine, bear in mind)

If you are able to tolerate drunks and hippies (and shhhton of meskens), you can also live on the south side close to the San Marcos airport (KHYI) where they are building new hangars so there is no shortage on the south side. And it is a little closer to downtown.

If you are moving down here to the Nuevo Kalyfornya hell, feel free to start a new thread because the more local pilots you ask, the more opinions you will get.
 
BigBadLou said:
They closed the grass strip by Leander, it was sold to a developer. And it's been so long, I cannot even recall the name anymore. Dang. (Kittie Hill??)
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Yep, Kittie Hill. You can still see remnants of the runways on Google maps. I landed there when I was getting my PPL at KGTU.
 
codeeno said:
Lou, is it reasonable to live at Liberty Hill and drive into downtown? Looking on a map, it seems to be untenable for a commute, but, as a local, what's your opinion? (not trying to hijack the thread).

Dean
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I live in Leander which is slightly south of Liberty Hill. Thanfully, I pretty much work from home and my office is on the north side of town so I don't have to deal with the downtown commuters even when I do drive in...but a daily commute from Liberty Hill to downtown proper would be brutal, for sure. The traffic in the Austin area is just horrible for the size of city we are. We have a major interstate running north and south (I-35) right through downtown but no east/west tributaries. We have 2 highways named 'loops' that don't loop around anything and a river that runs south of downtown that provides a total of 6 lanes of traffic available for the gajillions of people making their way into town from the south side. It's really a mess here with not much end in sight. There is a toll road now that would be a pretty quick jaunt from Liberty Hill to the north Austin area but it's bumper to bumper from there all the way into downtown until almost 10am now. They are working on HOV toll type lanes but not sure how much that's going to help (and would get expensive taking the toll road all the way in and out for 20+ days a month).

I haven't been out to the Liberty Hill airpark yet but my wife and I considered buying a lot. I just don't know what my timetable is to build and I'm sure they have some sort of contract that you have to start building something within a certain amount of time after getting the paperwork done. The other thing that is strange about the airpark out there is that the prevailing winds are North/South in Austin and they build an East/West runway configuration? Go figure...
 
kenjr said:
The other thing that is strange about the airpark out there is that the prevailing winds are North/South in Austin and they build an East/West runway configuration? Go figure...
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That runway was built way before an airpark was even a thought. CFC used to do helicopter training out there. They would pick up students in Austin, and fly them out there in a plane, then they would stay for helicopter training. I agree, I don't like having that as my only option for a runway.
 
I drove out to Cross Country and examined the runway. A local told me that they have a subterranian irrigation system now that reduces cracking. Looks really nice and smooth, I think I could probably land there. There's a bit of a useful slope.
 
JimNtexas said:
I haven't been there to see it, the next time I speak to him I'll ask for an update.
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Okay, here's a spoiler. I spoke to Frank G. about this, and he told me that the project to sell hangar sites is de-facto canceled. He is focusing on building an RV park at the airport now. One sad part is, the 2-exit, U-shape taxiway he has showcased in plans is in fact built. So, I'm curious a) if your friend was going to use one of the 25 sites, and b) if his project continues - maybe he's far enough from the land used by the RV park if his site was on the western end.
 
The RV park will be on the SW side of the rwy (10/28) while the taxiways and hangar plots are on the NE side. So they should not interfere at all.
Frank invested a lot of money into the hangar plots so I am not sure why the hold but next time I see him, I will ask him. Maybe it is just a delay.
 
zaitcev said:
Okay, here's a spoiler. I spoke to Frank G. about this, and he told me that the project to sell hangar sites is de-facto canceled. He is focusing on building an RV park at the airport now. One sad part is, the 2-exit, U-shape taxiway he has showcased in plans is in fact built. So, I'm curious a) if your friend was going to use one of the 25 sites, and b) if his project continues - maybe he's far enough from the land used by the RV park if his site was on the western end.
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Yep, unfortunately the project is canceled. His original plan was to only let people build hangars that didn't look like residences to keep taxes down. I think this helped to kill the project. Not everyone wants to live in a hangar... like most wives!
 
Lowflynjack said:
Yep, unfortunately the project is canceled. His original plan was to only let people build hangars that didn't look like residences to keep taxes down. I think this helped to kill the project. Not everyone wants to live in a hangar... like most wives!
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I only understood what poor Frank meant by that plan a couple of days ago. The Carlson is at Lago Vista, so I started to get familiar with the place. From the runway it looks like a typical airport: taxiways along both sides of the runway, lined with large hangars. Nothing gives it away and no publication mentions it, but in reality KRYW is a total airpark - just quietly. Every hangar has an apartment attached in the back and people live in them. I never saw anything like it before.
 
zaitcev said:
Nothing gives it away and no publication mentions it, but in reality KRYW is a total airpark - just quietly. Every hangar has an apartment attached in the back and people live in them.
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Yeah, it's pretty neat out there. A few of them have what looks like a regular house in the back of the hangar.
h1.jpg
 
I finally landed at Lakeway for a Fish Fry event. That place definitely has a rich pilot tint, but nobody turned their nose at my $10,000 airplane and they seem to be quite friendly. They disclaim trouble with the City Hall and blame it all on the previous mayor. Hmm, I say!

The runway arrangement is odd: there is no parallel taxiway like on a conventional airport. Someone landed on 16 in a Cirrus, rolled to the end, then apparently tried to taxi to parking by mistaking an access taxiway for a parallel taxiway. He had to shut down, turn the plane around, then get back to the runway and taxi back. But at least it's a paved runway. A number of locals have jets, which is probably not feasible at Cross Country Estates.

Their new self-service fuel pump looks quite snazzy. I've never seen such a model before. Surprisingly though, there's no Jet-A.
 
I have friends at Lago Vista. It is in my opinion a squirrelly place. Up on top of a hill with trees and when the wind blows a few knots it can be tougher than a cob there. Lots of deer also. There are definitely cliques there but my view is tainted by one of my friends is THE airport grouch. There are a couple of “rich” guys who think they control the world. There are a few very very nice hangar homes there. A new guy could probably come in and have a great time but too much bad blood for us.


I am very happy in my T hangar at Georgetown but wish we would have bought at Pecan Plantation 20 years ago.
 
MD11Pilot said:
I have friends at Lago Vista. It is in my opinion a squirrelly place. Up on top of a hill with trees and when the wind blows a few knots it can be tougher than a cob there. Lots of deer also. There are definitely cliques there but my view is tainted by one of my friends is THE airport grouch. There are a couple of “rich” guys who think they control the world.
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I agree on Lago. You also accurately described Kittie Hill when it was around other than the "rich" guys part!
 
MD11Pilot said:
I have friends at Lago Vista. It is in my opinion a squirrelly place. Up on top of a hill with trees and when the wind blows a few knots it can be tougher than a cob there. Lots of deer also.
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I've been at Lago for 2 years now and not seen a single deer. Haven't had a problem with wind either.
 
Its an old thread, but I'll throw my 0.02 worth in. My uncle has lived at Breakaway (Sasser) since '79 or '80. I got my first 40 hrs of stick time in his Bonanza and his neighbor's Archer (which I now own) before I even owned a log book. We have watched all these north Austin airparks grow and change over the 40 or so years. Lago Vista looks like it would be squirely up on that hill when it's blowing, but the runway is actually sort of in saddle area and kind of sheltered and funnels the wind down the runway pretty well. Did two landings there for my PPL practical exam. I think the DPE was trying to see what I would do there, later I told him I grew up flying all these airports and he seemed a bit deflated. Got the ticket anyways. I digress.... Breakaway is actually a bit tougher when the wind is out of the South-south west. Runway is 15/33, when the wind is 180°+, the tree line makes almost a NACA duct effect and rolls a vortex right at the runway when you are trying to flare. Pretty expensive to live there now; they paved it about 5 years ago and that helps with everything except tire wear. It's narrow though--the grass is available to the side for those who wana play in it. Several at the field do use it.
Kitty Hawk we went into a few times, never seemed that busy and my cousin now lives in one of the new houses on the property. Lakeway is as said a bit High Falutin' , but never ran into anyone that had bad things to say so I guess it's just perception more than reality.
 
david.h said:
Kitty Hawk we went into a few times, never seemed that busy and my cousin now lives in one of the new houses on the property.
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I think you mean Kittie Hill. It's a shame it's gone. I was based there and loved it. Didn't have enough money to buy it though!

Kitty Hawk is an ultralight field closer to you. TS67 I like it out there too, but its not nearly as busy as it once was.
 
Yeah, Kitty Hill. Grass runways north of Leander

Edit: I actually went out to Kitty Hawk a year or two ago, doing some maiden test flights for a UAV.
 
zaitcev said:
I drove out to Cross Country and examined the runway. A local told me that they have a subterranian irrigation system now that reduces cracking. Looks really nice and smooth, I think I could probably land there. There's a bit of a useful slope.
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My friend, Jeff built that runway and was the original owner of the land where he built his house next to the grass strip. I haven't spoken to him in a few years, so I don't know what's going on there any more. Now that I think of it, I'd like to park my airplane there. Hmmm....
 
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