About 180 Bizjets Expected For The Big Game

Compiled From Information And Photos By ANN Reader Robert Maier

Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD), usually a quiet class D, was expecting 180 bizjets for Super Bowl XLV, and intended to close runway 17/35 in order to have space to park them all. All the runway/taxiway markings were repainted to rival DFW.

Photo By Robert Maier

But as in many areas of the country, if you don't like the weather in Texas wait 5 minutes.

Tuesday and Wednesday of Super Bowl week brought a very dangerous ice storm. It was the first time KRBD and Love Field (KCAL) had been closed since 9/11. Everything was been shut down all week. Then Friday, 6 inches of snow added insult to injury over the ice. All week, Super Bowl pre-events were cancelled.
 
The photos seen here were from a visit to RBD Saturday night. Maier said it was the first time he has ever seen pseudo-snowplows there, plus a turbine powered snowblower! Only a dozen or so bizjet's had made it in, and  all the local airports were reporting similar conditions.

Photo By Robert Maier

For gameday, however, there was major activity at the airport. Snowplows and the truck with a turbine blower eventually cleared 5700ft of  runway 31 at KRBD, and 1 bizjet was inbound about every every 15 minutes.
 
Meanwhile, at 'Delta Charlies', the KRBD airport restaurant, they were apparently required to post two posters about the superbowl TFR. One in English, one in Spanish.

Photo By Robert Maier

Says Maier "Uhhh... isn't English the international flying language?"

FMI: www.dallascityhall.com/aviation/dallas_executive_airport.html