"fly-in" restaurant?

Ponca City OK has a great Mexican rest. at the airport.

AEV-KRC wrote:
>
> On Fri, 29 May 1998 17:53:01 -0500, Frank Wells
> wrote:
>
> >Saw a piece on TV about a restaurant/diner that sits so close to small
> >airport that pilots just
> >taxi to it, through a stop sign and all. Perhaps in Nebraska, don't
> >recall. Anyway, I found out
> >that it has been one of my fiance's dreams since childhood to taxi a
> >plane on a street. (Huh?
> >me, I dream about retiring early in Bora-Bora.) I found out about this
> >because she literally
> >had a dream while sleeping about taxiing a plane on a road, and then
> >told me about  her
> >"childhood fantasy," laughing at the coincidence.
> >
> >Anybody have knowledge/contact info on such an animal anywhere in the
> >Midwest or Right Coast? We are in Illinois, and I would be willing to go
> >west to the Dakotas/Nebraska, and east to
> >New York, as those are the end-points of a couple of already-planned
> >trips.
>
>   There is a fairly well-known restaurant in southern Oklahoma called
> McGehee's Catfish that has its own private airstrip.  It's pretty
> popular with pilots from the Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth areas
> (its about equi-distant from both).  The strip is 2,400ft. in length
> and is grass-surfaced.  The identifier is T40, and it can be found on
> the D/FW sectional about 30 miles or so north of Gainesville, TX and
> about 20 miles south of Ardmore, OK.  I've never been there myself,
> but the place's food is legendary in this region.  Apparently, many of
> the Dallas sports celebrities frequent the place - especially the
> Cowboys and Stars - to load up on their all-you-can-eat Catfish
> dinners.  The story goes that the runway and helipad was put in for
> the Cowboys' players to fly in from the city to eat - don't know if
> that's true or not.
>   As for other fly-in restaurants in Oklahoma, the Downtown Airpark in
> Oklahoma City has an excellent restaurant.  The food was so good that
> many of the business people used to come over from the downtown area
> to eat.  The airport itself leaves much to be desired, it has a fairly
> rough 3,200ft. runway that is bordered by neighborhoods and factories
> on the south, and the North Canadian River on the north.  I never did
> like coming in from the east, where you have to clear all the
> high-rises downtown and make a fairly steep approach to the airport -
> and watch out for the high-tension wires on the opposite bank of the
> river!  Food's good, though, but I usually drove over there when I
> lived in Oklahoma City.
>   Wiley Post Airport, which is the city's primary general aviation
> airport, used to have a pretty good cafe in the terminal also.  It's
> an excellent airport for general aviation, with four runways, the
> longest of which is 7,200ft.  The restaurant was open odd hours, that
> was it's only real problem.  I've been told it's changed hands and is
> now operated by a lady who used to run Roz's Diner across the street.
> That was an excellent place, with a 50's theme going.  It's been about
> two years since I lived in OKC, so that may be different.
>
> Good luck,
> KRC

Someone wrote:
>
>  There is a fairly well-known restaurant in southern Oklahoma called
>McGehee's Catfish that has its own private airstrip.  It's pretty
>popular with pilots from the Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth areas
>(its about equi-distant from both).  The strip is 2,400ft. in length
>and is grass-surfaced.  The identifier is T40, and it can be found on
>the D/FW sectional about 30 miles or so north of Gainesville, TX and
>about 20 miles south of Ardmore, OK.  I've never been there myself,
>but the place's food is legendary in this region.  Apparently, many of
>the Dallas sports celebrities frequent the place - especially the
>Cowboys and Stars - to load up on their all-you-can-eat Catfish
>dinners.  The story goes that the runway and helipad was put in for
>the Cowboys' players to fly in from the city to eat - don't know if
>that's true or not.

McGehee's *is* a good place to eat!!
The last time I was down there the strip was more dirt&mud than grass, but now that summer is here, it should have dried out.  Be aware of trees at either end of the runway.

Elsewhere in Oklahoma:
Ardmore has a good short-order restaurant, and huge paved runways that accomodate a 747 salvage operation there.  Class D.

Westheimer Field at the Oklahoma University (just about 10 miles south of OKC) has a real good restaurant called Ozzies.  Every day special is "sirloin steak, baked potatoe, salad and bread for $4.25".  They also have all-you-can-eat fried chicken once a week.  Two paved runways, recently resurfaced.  Class D.

Harvey