Goodyear Blimp Circles La Grange; Lands at Airport

Folks in La Grange got treated to a surprise in the sky last Friday afternoon. A Goodyear Blimp circled around town for about 20 minutes during a flight from Houston to Austin.

The blimp was heading to Austin for a pair of appearances over the weekend, including one at the University of Texas-San Jose State football game on Saturday.

“We’re traveling today from Houston into Austin for a doubleheader weekend of the Longhorns’ home opener and the Lone Star Le Mans race at Circuit of the Americas,” said Dan Smith, Senior Airship Communications Specialist with Goodyear. “The transit gave us the perfect chance to fly over some places that haven’t gotten to see the Blimp since the days of our base in Spring, including La Grange.”

Goodyear’s base in Spring closed in 1992.

Smith said the blimp that flew over La Grange is named “Wingfoot Two,” based out of Pompano Beach, Florida. Smith said the blimp departed Florida on Aug. 29. It was supposed to fly over the Florida State-Alabama football game last Saturday, but bad weather canceled that flight.

On Friday, Wingfoot Two passed over La Grange around 1 p.m. It hovered over downtown La Grange for several minutes, circling around the courthouse square and above H-E-B.

From there it traveled to the west side of town and then performed a “touchand- go” landing at Fayette Regional Air Center.

Smith said the brief landing was performed for pilot training purposes.

“There are no simulators for blimps, so when we hire-on new pilots, it’s a process of anywhere from 9-15 months for them to build up enough training and experience to be ready for an FAA check ride,” Smith said. “Right now in addition to our nine fully licensed pilots, we have two in various stages of that training, one of whom is on the trip through Texas.

“After this weekend in Austin it will be a six-day trip back home, weather-permitting,” Smith said.