Redbird Skyport, Bar VK Ranch, US Aviation- General Aviation is Alive and Well in Texas

We rode the airlines from Newark to San Antonio to attend the grand opening ceremony for the Redbird Skyport a revolutionary new flight training center in San Marcos Texas this past week. Continental had a $266 round trip ticket for that pairing and we really couldn’t afford to be out of the office more than three days.

Believe me we tried to justify the math as our most recent airline trips have been as pleasurable as sitting through root canal therapy. I figured the $600 we spent on tickets would have got us to San Marcos and it would likely be another $600 to get home -just in fuel.

We left EWR on Monday and arrived at 11AM CST. With nothing to do until 6pm Tuesday evening, we headed to Denton to visit our Texas Friends from Oshkosh. Jim recently had sold his hangar at Denton Airport (DTO) and purchased an airpark home in Sanger with the money.  Airpark living has been a retirement fantasy for Judy and I for several years so we really wanted to see what it was like.

Driving on I35 north for three and a half hours we arrived at Jim’s where they graciously planned a party for the Yankees.  We toured Jim’s five bedroom  Man Cave (his wife will not spend the night there yet- “too primitive”) riding around on a golf cart to see the runway, fishing pond, pistol range and some really over the top homes sitting alongside a three thousand foot turf runway.  The entire Denton contingent we met at Oshkosh eleven years ago was in attendance. Jim Bill Larry and Howard usually camp in Vintage but we met them the one year they camped in the north 40- and this was the first time we met their wives.

We caught up over a dinner of BBQ brisket, pinto beans, potato salad and copious quantities of red wine. All through the party whenever you would walk through the house you could see Jim’s pristine 1963 V35 Bonanza under the lights in the adjoining hangar. I wondered whether he intentionally left the hangar lights on for that view and then thought - I would.

We spent the night at Jim's and arranged with Howard for a tour of the US Aviation Flight School in Denton where he is the Chief Pilot and Designated Pilot Examiner. US Aviation has sixty some odd airplanes and an elaborate simulator lab, proving to me that everything really is bigger in Texas.  Primarily training foreign students from all over the world, they run an ab initio program for numerous airlines, taking applicants through their Private, Instrument, Commercial, multi engine ratings finishing them up with King Air 90 simulator and flight time in one of the four King Air 90’s in their fleet.   

It was a real refreshing experience to see a well-funded flight school in a clean modern facility with well-kept aircraft and literally a hundred pilot/applicants going through their program. You would never think that there has been a downturn in aviation by visiting their facility.

We drove to San Marcos, checked in at the Embassy Suites, and headed downstairs for the shuttle to take us over to the airport.

The Redbird folks have created this FBO/Flight Training Center/Flight Experience Center and training laboratory out of nothing in less than a year. The facility is first class and includes a simulator lab with several of their FMX , a MX2 “hummingbird”,  numerous  TD and TD2 table top units as well as the first MCX a dual control FMX type motion simulator.

The MCX simulator elicited the same “we’ve got to get one” response out of me that the original had when we saw it in the NAFI Learn to Fly Discovery Center in Aeroshell Square at Oshkosh in 2009.

Dual controls solves a few of the challenges with instructing in the FMX primarily for Pitch Hitter

training, CFI applicants and for primary training where the need to explain, demonstrate and correct are concerned.Judy made sure that we steered clear of the sales staff that I’m sure were itching for someone to write a check for one.

We had a wonderful dinner buffet  with a  endless supply of beer and wine and listened to a list of distinguished speakers laud the Redbird team for bringing their idea to fruition. I will be keeping a close eye on the progress the Skyport people will undoubtedly be making. I had a few long conversations with many people at the AOPA Summit about the need for the FAA to revise the private pilot practical test standards to allow more than the current 2.5 hours of sim time that can be counted towards that rating. Everyone agreed and on Friday I saw a press release stating that the Skyport people have received a waiver allowing them to do just that.  

That’s a beautiful thing and will undoubtedly spur more student starts and finishes as the mechanics of stick and rudder skills will be learned and perfected in the simulator then brushed up in the airplane. It’s an exciting time and of course everything is bigger in Texas.