Heading to Houston on Friday. Saturday, planning to hook up with a pilot based at SGR.
He has never done a touch and go at HOU or IAH. As I told him, you don’t ask you don’t get, but if we ask for a touch and go, does one think I will get?
Woud odds be better at IAH or HOU? Obviously this is a thought that may or may not pan out based on traffic and his comfort zone (he will be PIC, but I may do the radio work for him)
We have a plane from 9 to 12 a.m. so if it took an hour to sequence us in, we still good on time.
Uhg, one of my weaker points is ground ops. Loking at HOU diagram gives me the willies thinking about taxing back if its a runway other then 35/17.
My friend is a rather newly minted, he said he was rusty on radio work and never been at anything bigger then SGR. He flew about a month ago and this would be about his 4th or 5th flight since being cut loose.
I don’t see anything with regards to landing fees at either airport. Do you know if there are any?
HOU will often grant the request after 9pm. However, at any hour, you can land and taxi to the customs overflow ramp north of Wilson Air on the south ramp and then pick up your clearance out of HOU. If ground ops are a concern, it can be tricky.
Either airport will be happy to accommodate you if you do a full stop to an FBO. IFR or VFR.
Seems to be a commonality between your post and Marks is that a full stop will be in order. I wonder if that’s to help traffic flow?
I thought about maybe a full stop but haven’t researched the ramp fees plus that will eat big time into good flying time sooo backup thought will be to get bravo clearance to sightsee over downtown. My friend has done this with non pilots but looking forward to doing this flight so he can get some high quality photos while I fly the plane.
It may help traffic flow, but mostly it obfuscates that you’re using it as a training airport, so they’re inclined to allow it.
Bravo clearances are pretty easy near downtown. Circling downtown and you’ll talk to approach then Hobby tower. They will not encourage you to spend a lot of time there, especially if they’re landing 12R.
Thanks Daniel and Mark for this invaluable insight.
One of the two planes below will be the set of wings that I sit right seat in to enjoy the scenic views, though it sounds like Karl needs to “repay” SGR a visit as I was told 17SJ has been repainted since photo was taken 8)
No, looking like we have settled on a quick trip from SGR to UTS north of Houston transitioning Bravo will be our game plane
Hopefully IAH will be using the east west runways so I hope to get some good overhead shots / video of traffic landing or taking off from there from a cozy cruise altitude of our planned altitude of 3500. Depending on time, southbound we may request to deviate over downtown Houston.
This will be my first time in Bravo VFR (I have always filed IFR when I flew in Bravo airspace) so I am looking forward to this even if I am not PIC.
