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Airport booms along with city
S everal recent improvements at Port Aransas' Mustang Beach bring the once-quiet little island
 | | Port Aransas is making its Mustang Beach Airport more userfriendly for folks who fly in for a month, a week, a weekend or even just an evening of dining. The airport is now its own section in the city's new comprehensive plan. |
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airport into
direct competition with larger fields such as T.C. McCampbell Airport in Aransas Pass and Aransas County Airport in Rockport.
If you haven't visited the airport in a while, you may be surprised at what's there now.
The improvements include AWOS, an automatic weather service for pilots that will give local weather with a phone call, and a navigation system that's almost as good as the high-dollar Instrument Landing System used by commercial airports. The new system will let fliers navigate to within 265 feet of the ground in cloudy or rainy weather; previously they could only legally descend to within 1,500 feet of the ground in inclement weather.
That's important to people who might contemplate flying to Port Aransas for a vacation or for a weekend, because they can now leave Dallas or San Antonio and come directly to Port Aransas.
The improvements at Mustang Beach are also a sign that the city is wakening to the impact fliers can have. City council members have made airport improvements a priority and have given it its own section in the city's upcoming comprehensive plan.
The city staff is working to come up with a far-reaching airport layout and plan that will move Mustang Beach beyond the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) aviation system and onto the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding list. The FAA oversees domestic flying activities.
As people become more familiar with Mustang Beach, support may grow, backers hope. For the summer, airport had two fixed-wing and one helicopter company offering tourist rides, and that could raise awareness of the airport.
It's ready to welcome visitors who fly in for a month, a weekend, or just for lunch.
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