Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport is a busy general aviation field near Tomball, in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, about 23 miles northwest of downtown Houston. Privately owned but home to an FAA control tower, it is one of the busiest general aviation airports in Texas and offers a long lit main runway with an ILS approach alongside a shorter secondary strip. The field carries a strong historical thread, from its founding by Charles Hooks to its years as home of the B-17 'Texas Raiders'.
David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport sits close to Tomball in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, roughly 23 miles northwest of Houston's central business district. It is privately owned, by Northwest Airport Management, LP, but is notable for hosting an FAA control tower despite that private ownership - a rare combination among general aviation fields. It ranks as the busiest general aviation airport in Texas and one of the busiest in the country, making it a lively destination for the visiting VFR pilot, with a mix of light singles, twins, jets, flight training traffic and helicopter operations. For several years it was also home to the historic B-17G Flying Fortress 'Texas Raiders', which adds a further point of interest for visiting aviators.
The airport lies in Harris County, Texas, about 23 miles (37 km) northwest of downtown Houston and roughly 10 miles northwest of George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Houston Approach/Departure provides services on 119.7 MHz for aircraft transiting the surrounding airspace, and the field itself has its own control tower. A noise-sensitive area lies to the southwest of the airport, and military aircraft departing runway 17R are required to climb on runway heading to 650 ft MSL prior to any turns or rejoin, an instruction that gives a sense of the surrounding local restrictions pilots should be aware of.
The main runway is a hard-surfaced, lit strip on the 17/35 alignment: the 35L end is 7,035 ft long, while the 17R end, which carries an ILS approach, is listed at 6,015 ft, reflecting differing declared distances at each threshold. A second, shorter parallel hard runway shares the same alignment: the 17L end measures 3,485 ft and the 35R end 3,289 ft, and unlike the main runway this one is not marked as lit. Field elevation is 148 ft.
Houston Approach/Departure works the airport on 119.7 MHz. The tower and common traffic frequency is 118.4 MHz, with ground control on 121.8 MHz. ATIS is broadcast on 124.95 MHz, clearance delivery on 119.45 MHz, and Unicom is available on 122.95 MHz. An ILS approach serves runway 17R.
Specific published circuit heights and joining procedures are not detailed in the available material, but pilots should note the noise-sensitive area southwest of the airport and the requirement for military aircraft departing runway 17R to climb straight ahead on runway heading to 650 ft MSL before turning or rejoining the pattern, both of which point to a degree of local noise and traffic management around the field.
A small circular lake at the north end of the airport, known locally as 'Lake Transit', with an island called 'Pinnacle Island' at its centre, serves as a useful visual reference for pilots identifying the field from the air. The airport's position near Tomball, to the northwest of Houston's built-up area, also helps distinguish it from the city's larger commercial airports.
The airport began as a private runway built by Charles Hooks for his own use, which grew into a business with the addition of a main terminal, and it opened for public use in the 1960s under the name Houston Northwest Airport. Shortly afterwards, Hooks' 15-year-old son David was killed in the crash of a small aircraft he was piloting under instruction, an accident that also killed the instructor and two others; the airport was renamed David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in his memory. Charles Hooks and his wife Irma ran the airport until the 1980s, after which their daughter took over operations following Mrs Hooks' death; Charles Hooks retired and sold the airport to the Gill family in 1989. Fires in 2009 and again in June 2010 destroyed hangars and aircraft, in the latter case including a helicopter and aircraft components. In early 2010 the airport gained a notable long-term resident when the B-17G Flying Fortress 'Texas Raiders' was moved permanently from William P. Hobby Airport into a hangar at the Tomball Jet Center, using Hooks as its base for the 2010 air show season and several years after, before relocating to Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport in March 2017.
Hooks remains a heavily used general aviation airport, handling well over 150,000 aircraft operations a year, the great majority general aviation, with over a hundred based aircraft ranging from single-engine types to jets. Facilities include the Gill Aviation terminal and the adjoining Aviator Grill restaurant, which overlooks the main ramps and runway 17R. Helicopter operators based at the field include Helicopter Services Inc. and Sunrise Helicopter, Inc., and Memorial Hermann Life Flight runs its North Base here, maintaining an EC-145 air ambulance helicopter and aircrew quarters for round-the-clock VFR and IFR operations. Several flight schools operate from the airport, including Texas Flight, The Flight School and United Flight Systems, reflecting its role as a major training centre for the Houston area. Public observation of the airfield has been restricted since 2012, when perimeter fencing went up, leaving the interior of the Aviator Grill as the main vantage point for onlookers.
