Holiday plans?

"Jim Burns" wrote:

Any plans on flying somewhere for the holidays?

Flying to Houston to see the folks.

Haven't made up my mind if I'll land at Sugar Land or Hobby. Hobby is
closer to Mom's and has more ILS approaches, but Sugar Land has fewer ground
hassles and spam cans don't get vectors all over the county to get there.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
Flying to Houston to see the folks.

Haven't made up my mind if I'll land at Sugar Land or Hobby. Hobby is
closer to Mom's and has more ILS approaches, but Sugar Land has fewer
ground
hassles and spam cans don't get vectors all over the county to get there.

I used to have my plane based out of Hobby... It's not that bad of an
airport for GA... I was based over on the south side of the airport at
FletchAir and it was usually a short taxi to a midfield 12R (at Kilo) or 04
(at Juliet) for takeoff... Landings usually ended with a turnoff at Kilo
from 12R or 12L, from Hotel on 18/35, or from Juliet or Mike on 04/22... The
way the weather has been lately, you probably won't need an ILS approach
anyway...

Traffic near SGR sucks due to road construction if you are heading south on
TX-6... Seems that there always is a train at the intersection of TX-6 and
US-90 every time I go that way... Another option might be AXH... I base my
plane there... There's also Manvel (nice grass strip) and Pearland... If you
are renting a car, some of the airports are going to be easier to arrange
that at than others...

"Grumman-581" wrote:


Flying to Houston to see the folks.

Haven't made up my mind if I'll land at Sugar Land or Hobby. Hobby is
closer to Mom's and has more ILS approaches, but Sugar Land has fewer
ground
hassles and spam cans don't get vectors all over the county to get
there.

I used to have my plane based out of Hobby... It's not that bad of an
airport for GA... I was based over on the south side of the airport at
FletchAir and it was usually a short taxi to a midfield 12R (at Kilo) or
04
(at Juliet) for takeoff... Landings usually ended with a turnoff at Kilo
from 12R or 12L, from Hotel on 18/35, or from Juliet or Mike on 04/22...
The
way the weather has been lately, you probably won't need an ILS approach
anyway...

Traffic near SGR sucks due to road construction if you are heading south
on
TX-6... Seems that there always is a train at the intersection of TX-6 and
US-90 every time I go that way... Another option might be AXH... I base my
plane there... There's also Manvel (nice grass strip) and Pearland... If
you
are renting a car, some of the airports are going to be easier to arrange
that at than others...


Cheapest fuel at HOU: $4.22. Fuel at SGR: $3.58.

Even when I cancel IFR early, I always get a bunch of vectors going into
HOU. And at Wilson (used to be Fletcher), there's only one choice of rent
car companies and security gates to deal with.

Going into SGR, I can take a pretty straight shot VFR under the south shelf
of the Class B. SGR has any kind of rent car you want and it's easy to
drive out of.

That Hwy 6 traffic can be tough, though.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:45:59 -0600, "Dan Luke"
wrote:
Cheapest fuel at HOU: $4.22. Fuel at SGR: $3.58.

Where you flying in from and what part of town are you heading
towards? If I'm flying in from the NE, I usually refuel over at
Anahuac (T00) -- current price for 100LL of $2.97... If your
destination is more towards the south of Houston, Brazoria Country /
Angleton (LBX) might even be an option with fuel at $2.99...

Even when I cancel IFR early, I always get a bunch of vectors going into
HOU. And at Wilson (used to be Fletcher), there's only one choice of rent
car companies and security gates to deal with.

I haven't been there since Fletcher sold out, but back when I used to
be based there, I could just walk through the hangar with my gear
(including a shotgun) and no one would bother me... I also had the
combination for the side gate in case no one was in the front office
to unlock the front door after hours...

Going into SGR, I can take a pretty straight shot VFR under the south shelf
of the Class B. SGR has any kind of rent car you want and it's easy to
drive out of.

As always, you have to make compromises on convenience and cost...
Since you say that you are flying straight across south side of the
Class B, that must mean that you're coming in from the east, possibly
somewhere else along the Gulf Coast... There are probably better
airports for your intended destination, but they might not have rental
cars available at that airport... Personally, if I'm over on the east
side of the Houston area, I try to fill up at T00 or T90... T90 often
has cheaper fuel than T00, but they don't update their prices on
AirNav that often... Hell, if you look at the Chambers County web
page, you'll see that the last time they updated those prices was back
on 5/16/2003...
http://www.co.chambers.tx.us/offices/airport.html
They don't have anyone over at T90 right now, but I called T00 and
they said that the county has the prices the same at both airports at
the present time...

"Grumman-581" wrote:

Cheapest fuel at HOU: $4.22. Fuel at SGR: $3.58.

Where you flying in from and what part of town are you heading
towards? If I'm flying in from the NE, I usually refuel over at
Anahuac (T00) -- current price for 100LL of $2.97... If your
destination is more towards the south of Houston, Brazoria Country /
Angleton (LBX) might even be an option with fuel at $2.99...

Yeah, but that's an extra stop which burns up the difference.


As always, you have to make compromises on convenience and cost...

Exactly.

Since you say that you are flying straight across south side of the
Class B, that must mean that you're coming in from the east, possibly
somewhere else along the Gulf Coast...

Mobile.

There are probably better
airports for your intended destination, but they might not have rental
cars available at that airport...

Yep, and too far from Mom's.

Personally, if I'm over on the east
side of the Houston area, I try to fill up at T00 or T90... T90 often
has cheaper fuel than T00, but they don't update their prices on
AirNav that often... Hell, if you look at the Chambers County web
page, you'll see that the last time they updated those prices was back
on 5/16/2003...
http://www.co.chambers.tx.us/offices/airport.html
They don't have anyone over at T90 right now, but I called T00 and
they said that the county has the prices the same at both airports at
the present time...

That's a lot cheaper than around here. Cheapest around Mobile is $3.90 at
Gulf Shores.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:45:42 -0600, "Dan Luke"
wrote:
Yeah, but that's an extra stop which burns up the difference.

Perhaps... I've never really calculated it out... If I'm in the area,
I fill up over there... Since I'm just boring holes in the sky anyway,
I might as well bore holes near places with cheap fuel... grin

Mobile.

Flight planning for that should be easy -- FOLLOW I-10 to TX-6, right
on TX-6 to SGR... grin

That's a lot cheaper than around here. Cheapest around Mobile is $3.90 at
Gulf Shores.

Seems that Chambers County is trying to get people to fly into their
county and do business... All in all, it's a fairly rural area...
Close enough to Houston that you could live out there and commute to
work in downtown Houston, but far enough that most people aren't
willing... Elevation above sea level is probably the reason that they
haven't created any major housing developments out there yet since
there are still other places to expand without having to deal with
that problem...

I would suggest that you give me a shout once you get here, but I'm
headed out to CYYZ tomorrow...

"Grumman-581" wrote:

Yeah, but that's an extra stop which burns up the difference.

Perhaps... I've never really calculated it out... If I'm in the area,
I fill up over there... Since I'm just boring holes in the sky anyway,
I might as well bore holes near places with cheap fuel... grin

Yeah. My "warm up the oil" flight is a hop down to Gulf Shores for fuel,
with a quick side trip along the beach to check for sharks.

Mobile.

Flight planning for that should be easy -- FOLLOW I-10 to TX-6, right
on TX-6 to SGR... grin

I get a great deal of smug satisfaction flying over the holiday traffic on
I-10 thinking "If it wasn't for flying, we'd be stuck in that!"

That's a lot cheaper than around here. Cheapest around Mobile is $3.90
at
Gulf Shores.

Seems that Chambers County is trying to get people to fly into their
county and do business... All in all, it's a fairly rural area...
Close enough to Houston that you could live out there and commute to
work in downtown Houston, but far enough that most people aren't
willing... Elevation above sea level is probably the reason that they
haven't created any major housing developments out there yet since
there are still other places to expand without having to deal with
that problem...

I would suggest that you give me a shout once you get here, but I'm
headed out to CYYZ tomorrow...

Next time.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM