Truth or Consequences (KTCS) History

birdus

birdus

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Jay Williams
Anyone know the history of Truth or Consequences Municipal Airport? I've e-mailed both the airport manager and T or C librarian and haven't gotten a response.
 
birdus said:
Anyone know the history of Truth or Consequences Municipal Airport? I've e-mailed both the airport manager and T or C librarian and haven't gotten a response.
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The airport itself, I dunno. The name of the City was like a stunt from the radio game show. Do they have a Chamber of Commerce? Try them
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico
Continental used to serve it with DC3’s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences_Municipal_Airport
 
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"Truth or Consequences, locally called T or C and formerly known as Hot Springs, is a town in New Mexico in the United States of America. It gets its curious name from a 1950s-vintage television show that offered to film an episode in some little town far from Hollywood, if that town would change its name to match the show's. Hot Springs, New Mexico needed an economic boost, agreed to the deal, and has gained notoriety and consequently tourist business as a result."

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences#Q431932
 
I always thought Bob Barker built it.
 
There has been a couple small pushes to change the name back to Hot Springs again, but apparently it is just not as easy to do a name change like it was in 1950.

Might try calling the T or C Chamber of Commerce 575-894-3536.
 
Another weird one in New Mexico is 24N. Big ol 7500 foot runway in the middle of the Jicarilla reservation. I would suspect it was built for the oil and gas industry.
 
Zeldman said:
... apparently it is just not as easy to do a name change like it was in 1950.
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True, though a similar stunt happened in 1999:

"Halfway is a city in Baker County, Oregon, United States. The city took its name from the location of its post office, on the Alexander Stalker ranch, halfway between Pine and Jim Town. The population was 288 at the 2010 census.

During the dot-com boom, Halfway agreed to rename itself as Half.com, Oregon for a year as a publicity stunt for the e-commerce company of the same name."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway,_Oregon
 
And Westland Michigan (formerly Nankin Township) was named after a shopping mall.
 
I always found being given the “Truth or Consequences altimeter” setting in that area, given terrain in that part of the country, humorous. :)
 
Plano Pilot said:
I went in there about 15 years ago. The locals at the airport had a story of when Airforce One went in and broke up some pavement. Sorry that is all I have.
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That was about 60 nm to the SSE, at Las Cruces Municipal Airport. Dubya landed at LRU in 2004 (in a 757) and one of the C-17s supporting the trip sank into 4/22 despite warnings from airport management not to land on that runway.

To the OP, I wish I knew more about TCS to share. Given the unusual runway layout, I've always assumed it began as an auxiliary airfield for WWII bomber crews training out of Kirtland or Roswell... but I can't find anything to support that.

Here's a shot I took of TCS while flying back from Santa Teresa in 2014: https://ibb.co/n87c7jf
 
Racerx said:
Another weird one in New Mexico is 24N. Big ol 7500 foot runway in the middle of the Jicarilla reservation. I would suspect it was built for the oil and gas industry.
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"The airport is used for emergency medical services and during forest fires. BIA Road J-8 goes to Dulce to the airport." https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tribal/tribalprgm/govts/jicarilla.htm

XNI (Zuni) in western NM is another well-maintained reservation airport that's used almost exclusively for medevac ops.
 
T&C is also the staging area for the tourist trip into the Trinity site in White Sands Missile Range (only open 2 days a year). Colorado Pilots is planning (again) a flyin for the tour in Oct '21. We're doing Brnson' Spaceport (tour bus - landing fee would embarass Mass!) then to Trinity.
 
I didn't know about the T or C airport until I read this, but the TV show was awesome back in the day.
 
flightwriter said:
That was about 60 nm to the SSE, at Las Cruces Municipal Airport. Dubya landed at LRU in 2004 (in a 757) and one of the C-17s supporting the trip sank into 4/22 despite warnings from airport management not to land on that runway.

To the OP, I wish I knew more about TCS to share. Given the unusual runway layout, I've always assumed it began as an auxiliary airfield for WWII bomber crews training out of Kirtland or Roswell... but I can't find anything to support that.

Here's a shot I took of TCS while flying back from Santa Teresa in 2014: https://ibb.co/n87c7jf
Click to expand...

You are right, my bad memory.
 
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