Weiser Airpark: An Endangered Landmark

Over the last century, many local airports have come and gone within the Greater Houston area.  Due to land development and other factors, many of these smaller airfields have vanished completely from existence.   Andrau Airpark, which was located on the south side of Westheimer near Kirkwood, vanished shortly after the turn of the 21st century, and is now a residential community.  Aside from a small strip of asphalt situated on the shoulder of Kirkwood that was once an entry drive to the airpark, you’d never know there was ever one there.

Further to the north, at the northeast corner of I-10 and Eldridge Parkway, there was once a small airfield labeled Crutcher-Rolfs-Cummings listed on local maps.  I never saw any photographs of it, but historic aerial imagery from the mid-20th century confirmed the presence of some type of small recreational airfield on that tract of land.  Sometime in the 1970’s, the airfield vanished and was eventually replaced with office buildings, as well as an extension of Dairy-Ashford Road that tied into Eldridge Parkway.

With all the new construction and changes going on around the Northwest Freeway (US 290) these days, it makes me wonder about the future of Weiser Airpark (KEYQ), a small recreational airport located on the north side of the freeway just a few blocks east of Telge Rd. in Cypress, TX.  Weiser has been a local landmark for as long as I can remember, and is now finding itself to be an aging airfield on a very valuable piece of land that developers would love to get their hands on.

To give you a little history on Weiser, it was first established in the 1950’s as F.H. Jackson Airport, which was an addition to a 165 acre dairy farm owned by Robert and Cecil Weiser.  In 1963 the airport was renamed Weiser, and they added several rows of hangars which still exist today.

I first discovered Weiser as a child, when my dad used to fly small planes out of there.  He was a young pilot in training at the time, and would rent out whatever plane they had available, but I recall him using the same one most of the time.  As a child, I thought it was his airplane.  Not until I grew older did I realize the arrangement for a person of limited financial means to gain access to a private aircraft through matters of rental and plane loyalty.

I have many memories of various flying excursions based out of Weiser, and growing up in the area has made me accustomed to the presence of small aircraft buzzing around all day long.  When I was about 14, during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I would wake up early and ride my bike around with my headphones on, and would often ride up 290 to Weiser to watch some of the early morning pilots getting started.  I had nothing better to do, and I was kind of in this aircraft phase of life where I wanted to fly a plane of my own some day.

Fast forward to 2015.  I am now 35 years old and enrolled in The Flight School at Weiser.  I am actually going through the motions of getting my private pilot’s license and knowing how to fly a plane.  At this time I am still a beginner, but as I have grown familiar with every vehicle I have ever operated, I am confident I will learn to do it well, and I will have completed training to an advantage because Weiser is one of the more difficult runways to make.  Those who graduate from Weiser graduate…wiser….(ok pun intended).

But in all seriousness, the whole reconstruction of the 290 freeway has me worried, because not only is the freeway changing, but businesses are changing too.  Huge tracts of land are being sold to build warehouses and retail strips, frontage roads are being widened, and little airstrips like Weiser posed beside a massive freeway will soon find themselves in danger of being bought out.

Currently, the airport is still owned by the Weiser family, but when the last member passes away, there is a high likelihood of the land being sold off, and the airport closing forever.  I don’t have anything to back that up, but history has shown that places like this don’t last forever.  Houston is not a city known for preserving it’s architectural history, and when development is in, history is out.  Weiser is a single, narrow runway and a string of rusty hangars sitting on the side of what is about to be a supermassive freeway like I-10.  As warm of an environment as it may be for family and those who have kept the place alive, I just have a lingering fear that Houston will eventually lose this airport to development, and all the familiarity of having it there will be gone forever.  I have a very clear image in my mind of driving past 290 and Telge and telling some children “yeah there used to be an airport there.  It’s where I learned to fly.”  Only there will be a new apartment complex sitting over what used to be Runway 09-27.

There is not much we can do to change this reality, but we can prepare for it by appreciating Weiser while we still have it.  I will remember every lesson I take there, and all the hundreds of times I’ve passed through those gates in various cars and trucks (or bikes).  And should the day come that it does close, I know I will have memories that no history lesson could ever duplicate.