Rick's
Rambles about Hobby Airport, and travels in
general..
A native Houstonian, I've lived in
Houston much of my life, and have flown in & out of
Houston's William P. Hobby Airport on hundreds of
commercial and private flights. It has been fascinating
to see the aiport change and grow during my
lifetime.
Times sure have changed. Jets
instead of Propellors. "Flight Attendants" instead of
"Stewardesses". "Fly-by-Wire" controls. And when was the
last time you entered or exited a commercial airplane on
a rickety wheeled metal stairway? Although Hobby has
certainly grown and changed, some of the airport's
features from the 60's and 70's are still recognizable.
My first Hobby flight (then called
Houston Municipal Airport or HMA) flight was at
age 2. My father was involved in construction, and our
family moved a lot in those days. A construction manager
for Brown & Root as, he was assigned to build a
military airport near Verdun, France, in 1952. As often
happened with construction jobs in those days, the
company sent him on ahead to check out the situation.
B&R got the job, and then he called Mom
long-distance, to tell her: "We got the job. Sell the
house, pack up the kids, and take a ship to France!".
We sailed to Europe on the
famous passenger liner SS Il de France. That
ship was known for its art-deco style, and the
first modern passenger liner built after World War I. I
sure wish that I'd been old enough to remember that trip.
Somewhere in the garage is an ancient child's suitcase,
with an Il de France sticker on it, along with a variety
of stickers from memorable PanAm and Braniff flights.
Those two famous airline names are now just
history...
After a year or so of work in
France, we briefly moved back to the US, flying home to
Hobby Airport on Pan American airlines. I seriously doubt
that this was a non-stop flight, but don't know the exact
route followed in those days.
Within a few months, we were back
on an airplane again, leaving from Houston Hobby to live
in Caracas, Venezuela for a couple of years. This time
Dad was project manager for the construction of the first
natural gas compressor stations in Lake Maracaibo. A
couple of years of living in a metal Quonset hut
contributed a few more colorful stories to the family
history, and then we again flew back to Houston's Hobby
Airport.
In the late 50's and early 60's, we
moved to south Louisiana, where dad built a paper mill
for Brown & Root. This was an experimental factory
that used bagasse, or sugar cane waste fiber, to make
paper. The project was successful, and we stayed on Bayou
Lafourche for seven years. Business visitors often flew
to the project site in the company's twin prop Grumman
Widgeon seaplane. The big noisy amphibian landed in the
bayou across the street and then drove up the boat ramp
to park in view of our kitchen window. This was always a
novel event in the rural area on Hwy 1, the narrow road
down to Grand Isle. About the only other planes ever seen
there were crop dusters, which sometimes flew out of a
field directly across the bayou, thus often buzzing our
house while coming & going.
As there were no facilities for
fueling or servicing the seaplane, the pilot would take
short hops to Baton Rouge or New Orleans while the
bigwigs were discussing business. Life was a little more
relaxed in those days, and I was sometimes allowed to go
along on those short flights, sitting in the co-pilot
seat. Although certainly not allowed to actually fly the
plane, I could listen to the chatter on a headst, and
sometimes was allowed to rest my hands on the stick,
feeling the motions of flying.
It is easy for drift off in
memories, and forget the point of this story.. yes, we
also flew to Houston several times in the Widgeon,
landing at Houston Hobby. (But with Mom & Dad along,
I didn't usually get to sit in the co-pilot seat..) It
sure felt strange to take off on water at Bayou
Lafourche, and then land on a concrete runway in the big
city at the end of a trip.
Landing or taking off from water in
a big propeller-driven seaplance is a truly exhilerating
experience, especially when compared to the boring
monotony of modern commuter jets. If you love airplanes,
and ever have an opportunity to fly in an amphibian,
don't miss it.
In the late 60's, we lived in Cali,
Colombia, where dad built another bagasse paper mill.
Travel, as always, meant leaving our home in Houston via
Hobby Airport, and coming home through that same
terminal. BTW, dad always said that it was a really
interesting experience to built a factory when the
machinery manuals were in Finnish, while in a country
where the workers spoke Spanish. He took crash courses in
both languages, and managed to complete the project
on-time an within budget.
Getting back to Houston: Over the
many years since then, I've taken commercial flights from
Hobby air port to final destinations all across the USA
& Western Hemisphere. A few of the more common or
memorable destinations: Dallas, New Orleans, New York,
Kansas City, Iowa Falls, Atlanta, Lake Tahoe, Miami,
Chicago, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Panama City,
Guatemala, Quito Ecuador, Cali Colombia, Bogota Colombia.
Plus a lot of return flights from all of those places,
always glad to be home again in Houston!
During the early 70's, I took a few
training flights out of Hobby, while working on my
private pilot's license. However, most of my flight
training was done at Tamiami General Aviation Airport
near Miami, Florida. (My first solo flight was at
Tamiami, but that is another story.) Training flights and
stop & go landings were also flown at Hobby Airport,
Hook Airport, Hull Airport, and a few backwoods strips
whose names have been long forgotten.
Hobby Airport still has a large
volume of general aviation traffic, including flight
schools catering to corporate and commercial
pilots.
Anyway, suffice it to say that I've
carried a lot of bags through the old terminal, which has
been steadily renovated over the years. (Frankly, I don't
recall any time that the terminal was NOT
under-construction!)
After a number of quiet years after
Houston Intercontinental Airport opened, Hobby is now
booming again, with more renovation and additions to the
terminal and runways. There is discussion of buying
nearby land to extend the runways once again. The
blighted areas nearby are finally showing some
improvement, partly due to the growth of the airport, and
partly due to expansion of Houston into that relatively
inexpensive airport & industrial area. There are now
several modern hotels nearby, as well as new parking
facilities.
But Hobby Airport is still
recognizable through all of the changes, and Houston's
aiport authorities promise to retain as much of the old
terminal as possible, or at least the general appearance
and ambience.
After all, some of those airport
administrators also grew up in Houston, where many of
their major life adventures began & ended at Hobby
Airport. Even today, stepping off a plane into the Hobby
terminal building gives one that unmistakable feeling of:
"Hello, Houston.. I'm home!".
Rick
August
2006
Do you have
a Houston Hobby story that you would like to tell? Send
it to: rick@houstonhobby.com
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