Of Oilmen/Private Airplanes and Texas Football More Tales From Mueller: By Esteban Erik Stipnieks
Note: This story was extracted in a restaurant near SAT. The man who told me the story was briefly in the Tower and witnessed these early 1970s incident and later flew for Army National Guard. His career first as air traffic controller and later military pilot encompassed a large section of the history. Gotta get this documented many in his generation have already made their final flights.
The bumper sticker stays "Keep Austin Weird" in the late 1960s and through the 1970s the only thing more weird then downtown was the airspace over East Austin. Within 10nm you had 2 General Aviation airports 1 municipal airport that with commercial and GA and a major Tactical Air Command Base. It was considered among the most hazards pieces of airspace in the United States of America. The lasting tribute to the men and later women that flew in the airspace controlled the airspace is the fact that the hazards that student pilots, instructor pilots, commercial pilots and military pilots knew never became made evident in the form of a mid air collision.
F-4 Phantoms, DC-9s, 727s, Tri-pacers, Skyhawks, Skylanes and light twins of all kinds oh my! Football oil men winged toys and the official religion of Texas on Fall Saturdays. The only thing closer to then either of the two general aviation airfields and Bergstrom Air Force Base was the Cathedral to collegiate football at UT. There are many myths in Texas those myths have their basis in fact. The 1970s brought lots of wealth to the oil patch. That wealth helped fuel generation aviation as former military airfields became small town airports and the presence of flight training meant airplanes were purchased with disposable income. If you have not been to Texas college football was a religion if you are Tech football fan and you played Texas Tech or A&M you had to be at the game.
The light twin started out one way zigged another the tower was trying to get him on a runway get him down get out of everybody's hair. It must have been scary coming to one runway then zigging to another how it ended up scarred one supervisor for life others taking the gallows humor for others. Keep in mind Robert Mueller at the time had two parallel runways and a runway that was at an angle whose imaginary centerline made the top of a triangle near I 35. Further down between these three runways a single taxiway. You guessed it this taxiway was pretty close to Browning. Kickoff time was very close as this airplane began its dance around the airport the pilot had to make it to the football game on time. Where does the light twin land? The controller was wondering 30R, 30L, 34L. The answer is not on runway but from the south on the taxiway that connected all three running practically north and south. Its nose stopping 10 feet away from the office of Browning Hangar. One of the guys working in the cab could not believe it and to the day the thought of that airplane drove him.
Sometimes reality is stranger then myth. The Piper Tri-Pacer is not the Fork Tailed Doctor Killer of myth but well religious zealotry can over power common sense. Kick off time was approaching almost as fast as the Piper Tri-pacer. The pilot had a taxi scheduled and waiting he had to be there for kick off. Now the Tri-pacer can do interesting things. The pilot was skilled but lets face it all airplanes have limits. The approach was steep the run at the end of was short but the testosterone was excessive and the two aviation tires were killed in the process and the throttle work almost full to move the airplane on rims was none the less interesting as the airplane wound up not on a taxiway or a runway but stuck grass with its wing impinging on a runway. What followed the folly of a steep approach high speed turn off blowing two tires was the scene of a man coming out the airplane running across the taxi ways and ramps to the FBO and a waiting taxi. This was comical (nobody had been killed) Call Browning tell them to the airplane so we can use the runway. In the process a mother and son emerge from the stranded airplane as a tractor approached the airplane.
Now the question emerges...who was more weird the football fans who drank beer and were involved with the game day antics or the hippies who were more then one toke over the line. On the subject of keep Austin weird the local GA, military, and familiar commercial crowd that routinely flew the skies over the Peoples Republic of Austin the locals come off tame boring sedate and well frighteningly normal. The humor in the tower cab well placed and systematic to blow off steam and keep the skies safe despite the antics of the loose nuts at the sticks of airplanes.