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THE START
In 1999 there was a grass roots effort to save
Robert Mueller Airport in Austin, Texas.
“Friends of Robert Mueller” was formed after it
was learned that the city of Austin planned to
close the airport and move all commercial and
general aviation facilities to the new Austin
Bergstrom International Airport.
“Friends of Robert Mueller” successfully raised
awareness of the impending loss of facilities
but could not save Mueller and Austin Executive
airports, both of which closed in the summer of
1999.
The city of Austin chose not to provide any
hangars for general aviation at the new airport
and most of the hundreds of displaced general
aviation planes and pilots were forced to find
new homes in adjacent towns such as San Marcos
and Georgetown. This created additional
pressures on the operations at these non-towered
airports.
The founders of “Friends of Robert Mueller” soon
realized that general aviation was being
threatened in areas throughout Texas. The need
for a statewide advocacy group was obvious and
the Texas Aviation Association was born with the
mission statement, “To Promote and Preserve
General Aviation in the State of Texas”.
Under the leadership of a few dedicated Austin
pilots TXAA started recruiting members from
across the state to support the needs of general
aviation throughout the state of Texas. This
provided pilots with an organization and the
support to work with others to address local
issues and promote better public understanding
of the benefits of general aviation to the local
community with the support of a state wide
organization. Organization, education and action
have shown positive results across the state.
POSITIVE RESULTS
THROUGH ACTION
The city of Austin did not provide any support
for general aviation when the new Bergstrom
Airport was opened. There were no plans or
facilities for the smaller aircraft except for a
few tie down areas on the south side of the
field. The city failed to provide any T-hangars
to replace those lost at Robert Mueller and only
accommodated two FBOs. As well, there was only a
single maintenance facility at Bergstrom.
Invoking federal and state law, TXAA was able to
require the city of Austin to build 53 new
T-hangars. It was a small and yet vital step
toward obtaining facilities to support general
aviation in Austin. This was the first time that
an organized approach for the support of general
aviation in Texas was successful and provided a
model for future efforts.
This success was short lived when the city of
Austin implemented a requirement that each
T-hangar renter provide a one million dollar
liability insurance policy in order to hangar an
airplane in one of the new T-hangars and have an
additional one million dollar car insurance
policy to drive to the new T-hangars! Most
insurance underwriters refused to provide an
economical policy but TXAA was able to reach a
compromise with the city by facilitating the
formation of the Bergstrom Pilots Association
and development of an umbrella insurance policy
that was accepted by the city and affordable for
the pilots.
CONTINUED EARLY SUCCESS
The city of Georgetown meanwhile was disturbed
by the large increase in aircraft that had
migrated to their airport from Austin. The
Georgetown city council decided that T-hangar
and tie down renters were to be subjected to a
very large increase in rent to “help pay for the
construction of a proposed control tower”. Other
business operations at Georgetown such as flight
schools and maintenance facilities “would not
have their rents increased”. This was a
violation of the Federal Grant Assurance Laws
and TXAA made sure that the city council was
made aware of this oversight! The city attorney,
after reviewing the grant assurance law,
recommended that the city not approve the
proposal to increase the rent on the T-hangars
and tie downs.
The city of Georgetown then rejected the
proposed construction of a control tower, even
though the increased population of aircraft and
the close midair encounters that occurred all
too frequently demonstrated the need for the
tower. TXAA continued their efforts to educate
and inform pilots and the non-flying public of
the need for a control tower at Georgetown. With
the passage of Federal Air-21 legislation, it
was brought to Georgetown’s attention that only
10% of the funding for a control tower would
come from local funds.
A subsequent mid-air collision on the approach
to runway 18 was the wakeup call to the city
that aviation safety demanded the construction
of a control tower. TXAA addressed the next city
council meeting, expressing its concerns and
support for the construction of a control tower
at Georgetown. The council voted 7 to 0 in favor
of providing the funds for the tower’s
construction!
AND THEN KITTIE HILL
(771)
The urban growth around the Kittie Hill (771)
grass strip northwest of Austin threatened the
closure of the airport. Developers needed to
build a road through the middle of the airport
to connect their housing development to a nearby
highway. TXAA supported the local pilots by
educating the Leander city government on the
economic benefit and importance of the airport
and helped to prevent the closure of the
airport.
THE GOOD NEWS TRAVELED
ACROSS THE STATE
TXAA is here to help! The organization helped
form many new pilot support groups in cities
across Texas. The organization’s success caught
the attention of the Texas Department of
Transportation. The director of the Aviation
Division, David Fulton, signed a letter of
support for the efforts of TXAA. Bill Gunn,
Aviation Safety Director for TxDOT, became an
advisor to the TXAA Board of Directors. He has
been a vital source of information on General
Aviation in Texas and has helped facilitate the
distribution of this information through the
members of TXAA.
The FAA Houston TRACON staff also became aware
of the TXAA and in the spring of 2003 TXAA and
the Houston TRACON staff joined together to
conduct an event called Gulf Coast Wings. The
TXAA took responsibility for this event in June
2004. Over 600 pilots and aviation enthusiasts
attended two days of safety seminars, general
sessions, tours of the Lone Star Flight Museum
and a FFQ banquet featuring guest speaker,
Captain Al Haynes, the hero of United Flight
232.
The TXAA sponsored the Texas Aviation EXPO 2007
held at the Texas State Technical College in
Waco. Guest speakers were Steven Brown, Senior
Vice President of Operations for the National
Business Aviation Association (NBAA), George
“Pinky” Nelson, former astronaut who served on
three space shuttle missions and J.W. “Corkey”
Fornof. Corkey has flown many of the flying
scenes in the 007 film series.
The TXAA continued gaining momentum going into
2008 with an increasing membership and successes
resulting from the efforts of many hard working
volunteers across the state. The close ties with
the FAA, the Texas Department of Transportation
Aviation Division, the Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association and the National Business
Aviation were strengthened early in 2008. The
TXAA organization changed in 2008 to include a
management committee to work on ongoing TXAA
projects and issues along with the TXAA Board of
Directors. The management committee also
included Steve Hadley from NBAA and Shelly
deZevallos from AOPA as advisors to the TXAA
leadership team. This management committee began
publishing The Texas Flyer, a bimonthly e-news
letter, the subscriber base for which has grown
from 600 to over 700 in 2008 alone!
The committee also revitalized the TXAA web
site, www.txaa.org, with frequent postings of
aviation events, photos and news from Texas.
In addition, the committee also created a new
and expanded source of quality TXAA merchandise
with a convenient PayPal payment capability.
During 2008 the TXAA stepped out in support of
issues associated with developments at Bird’s
Nest (6R4), Liberty Municipal (T78), and Aero
Country (T31). TXAA also provided information to
the city staff at Arlington to help resolve the
use of Lake Arlington by float plane pilots.
Jim Rank joined TXAA in 2008 and in short order
became the new Treasurer for the organization
and through dedication and hard work has brought
online a new accounting system with income and
expense reporting and P&L statements that track
and balance to the PayPal and bank statements.
In October 2008 the management committee hosted
the first Texas General Aviation Summit
Conference to bring together over 60 individuals
representing over 40 different aviation entities
throughout the state of Texas. A host of panel
participants and speakers addressed current
aviation issues and a breakout workshop made up
of the attendees provided suggestions on
prioritization of these issues and approaches on
how best to work towards solving these to
improve the future of General Aviation.
The four initiatives (called GAP-TX) that
emerged from the work of the Summit Conference
are the following:
- GOVERNMENT/REGULATORY INITIATIVE
- AIRPORT FACILITY INITIATIVE
- GENERAL AVIATION PUBLIC RELATIONS INITIATIVE
- TRAINING/PROFICIENCY-EDUCATION INITIATIVE
These initiatives in addition to the continued
promotion of General Aviation in Texas will
become the principal focus for TXAA during 2009
and 2010. During 2009 the TXAA will continue to
expand its membership and seek aviation leaders
to help develop the programs necessary to
address these new initiatives and meet their
objectives by 2010. |
