Okies-McGehee's catfish restaurant in Marietta-T40 runway?

imwithtuxedo

Pre-takeoff checklist
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I got word from a friend that there is a grass strip next to this restaurant located down down on the Texas border. Looked it up but nothing on FF. Google maps image shows what looks to be a grass runway near the restaurant. AirNav shows it has the old identifier of T40. 2450' grass runway.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100710021937/http://www.airnav.com/airport/T40

Did anyone ever land there? Any info on why it was closed?
 

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Airnav has the phone number for Ms. Mcgehee...you could always call her and ask.
Edit: Disregard...was looking at an archived copy of the T40 Airnav page from 2010 and didn't immediately realize it. Even back then, the runway was marked "indefinitely closed". (Airnav started reporting the "indefinitely closed" news sometime between June 2008 and Oct 2009.)
 
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Yes, I have landed there, back when it was open, so 11 or 12 years ago now. Fun little runway in the right airplane, but an access road crossing it in the middle and tall trees on the north end.

Was great for going to the restaurant, of course.

They had a couple of (fatal, I think) accidents there something like 6 months apart and I guess they just decided it wasn't worth the risk, hassle or liability.

EDIT:
Looking at the NTSB database, they had 20 reported accidents from 1986 (first available NTSB record) to 2007 (before it closed). So about one a year average. But like anything else, they seemed to come in groups. Most recently:

2005 - 1 (nonfatal)
2006 - 2 (nonfatal)
2007 - 1 fatal in March and 1 nonfatal just a month later

Of course, no telling how many went unreported.
 
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Yes, I have landed there, back when it was open, so 11 or 12 years ago now. Fun little runway in the right airplane, but an access road crossing it in the middle and tall trees on the north end.

Was great for going to the restaurant, of course.

They had a couple of (fatal, I think) accidents there something like 6 months apart and I guess they just decided it wasn't worth the risk, hassle or liability.

EDIT:
Looking at the NTSB database, they had 20 reported accidents from 1986 (first available NTSB record) to 2007 (before it closed). So about one a year average. But like anything else, they seemed to come in groups. Most recently:

2005 - 1 (nonfatal)
2006 - 2 (nonfatal)
2007 - 1 fatal in March and 1 nonfatal just a month later

Of course, no telling how many went unreported.


I can see why they may have made the decision to close the runway. 20 reported accidents in twenty years for a grass runway in a VERY rural area is high. I'm guessing lots of overloaded planes trying to take off in the summertime.
 
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