On aeronautical maps of Colorado, you will see it. Happy Butt Airport is in the unincorporated Arapahoe County town of Byers.
It is not a misspelling of “butte” nor a vulgar joke. (Well, not too vulgar anyway.)
The name is a tribute to pilot Robert Husted’s mother. Her name was Gladys, which, slowed down and sounded out, becomes “glad ass.” That earned her the nickname “Happy Butt.”
“She thought it was kind of funny,” Husted reminisced, calling his mom “an old Kansas farm girl.”
Gladys died in 2013 at age 100 and left Robert some money. With it, he bought a Cessna 206, a single-engine prop plane, and named it “Happy Butt” in her honor.
Husted dreamed of living near a landing strip, but fly-in communities (housing developments with hangars and runways) were out of his financial reach.
“So I just went out and bought a chunk of property and went to county commission meetings and all that stuff to put in a [private] airport,” Husted said.
There was resistance at first, so he had to perform a go-around and make a second approach.
“By the time I got around to doing it again, those people had moved on or died. And I was a lot better friends with my neighbors then,” he explained.
Then came time to name the dirt airstrip.
“When I got to talking to the Federal Aviation Administration, I said, ‘Well, the airplane’s Happy Butt. The airport ought to be the same.’ I’m an FAA designee, so I know a lot of people at the agency and they all thought it was a great idea,” Husted added.
While Happy Butt Airport is private, pilots may land by invitation or in an emergency.
“We’ve got a sticker and it’s got a picture of a corgi’s butt and says ‘I touched down at Happy Butt,’” Husted mused. “We’ve actually got corgis that come out and greet you when you come in.”
Husted finds kids especially love the souvenir. A pilot friend of his flies budding aviators into Happy Butt Airport on weekends.
“We’ve had them as small as 5 years old and as old as 75,” Husted joked.
Colorado Wonders
This story is part of our Colorado Wonders series, where we answer your burning questions about Colorado. Curious about something? Go to our Colorado Wonders page to ask your question or view other questions we've answered.
