Austin, TX from above - what to see?

masloki

masloki

Pattern Altitude
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Nunya
Looking for tips of places to see by air while in Austin, plus any tips on airspace. I assume AUS has a morning and evening push and is relatively sleepy otherwise. And with the floor of the Charley, 1900’ looks good enough to clear the radio towers and stay out of their hair. For the aerial tour, I’ve got Lake Travis and hill country to the south. Anything else I should be taking a peek at while swooping around?
 
Well, that’s a tad awkward. 1900’ to clear most of the stuff*. Once I plot the waypoints, then the final altitudes will be dialed in. I have no desire to get up close and personal with antennas.
 
There's one large group of towers, but it's a lot of them on one hill and they're very visible. Pennybacker bridge is cool, the tower is good about letting you circle downtown and UT. You just missed the Trail of Lights, I think they shut it down. Go to Smithville, 84R and just north of the airport you'll see the name Luecke carved out of the trees (each letter is a mile long!)

5663268938_ecf6093c37_c.jpg
 
Couple things
1. Its a 60 mile flight west to T82 to the Hangar Hotel and Airport Diner. You won't be disappointed.
2. and more important when you are headed this way from AUS, stop at KJSO for cheap fuel.

Currently $3.84Screenshot 2023-12-27 092909.png
 
I was thrilled at 4.50 fuel. Under $4 is super nice! At that price, I might even fly ROP.
Checking out T82. Thanks!

SixPapaCharlie said:
Couple things
1. Its a 60 mile flight west to T82 to the Hangar Hotel and Airport Diner. You won't be disappointed.
2. and more important when you are headed this way from AUS, stop at KJSO for cheap fuel.

Currently $3.84
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Find Joe Rogan's house.
 
masloki said:
Checking out T82. Thanks!
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Checked out T82 - way cool and busy at the time we arrived. Looked like a 20 seater jet - that departed after we arrived on a pretty short runway. Definitely lost a few cool points for misreading ForeFlight and thinking the restaurant was open on Wednesday. Oops. Otherwise got a nice (bumpy) tour of Texas hills and flying by the capital.
 
masloki said:
I assume AUS has a morning and evening push and is relatively sleepy otherwise.
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A little late for your flight, but FWIW for anyone reading this thread in the future, in my experience the Austin Approach freqs are usually busy. I often fly between Houston and Austin, and I guess the Houston Approach airspace is carved into enough sectors that none are super-crowded. Houston Center is also not so busy. But when I get switched to Austin App, it's a struggle to find a break to even check in on frequency. The comm is just non-stop. Doesn't seem to matter what time of day.

Nice pics! Looks like you had a beautiful day for your tour.
 
Jim_R said:
A little late for your flight, but FWIW for anyone reading this thread in the future, in my experience the Austin Approach freqs are usually busy.
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Can agree with this. Very few breaks and usually a series of instructions to a sequence of SWA aircraft. They fit me in with flight following without missing a beat - and they gave me a local instruction, “stay west of the highway,” which was quickly amended when I said I was unfamiliar. Austin loves their highways so wasn’t sure which one.

Pics-wise, if you look closely in the first one, you can see the dome for the capital of Texas. Tiny in comparison to everything else around it.
 
any chance you had time to fly over AT&T stadium and drop a bag full of burning dog poop into it?
 
We overflew the Q2 arena but not AT&T. Looks like that is Dallas though so might get a chance on my way back. But if I’m dropping flaming dog turds (and how do you do that logistically in a plane with a) the flame and b) the dog?) it will be on Soldiers Field. But that team drops enough turds, not sure they need my help.
 
It's interesting to compare the size of the Gigafactory, just northeast of KAUS, to the size of normal buildings.
 
The antenna farm noted in Eman’s post is about 180 degrees from photo 1. The photo was about 1 minute before overflying the noted stadium.
 
I used to go to Austin a lot on free weekends when I was at Ft. Hood. I think it was Sixth Street that had a lot of bars and the music scene.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I used to go to Austin a lot on free weekends when I was at Ft. Hood. I think it was Sixth Street that had a lot of bars and the music scene.
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Yup.

It's been a while but the last time I went to 6th Street it got into the point to where they block it off and it was like an entry level Bourbon Street.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Yup.

It's been a while but the last time I went to 6th Street it got into the point to where they block it off and it was like an entry level Bourbon Street.
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I made the mistake of walking it around noon last year. Some streets just shouldn’t be seen by the light of day. :nono:
 
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