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The Southwest Regional Fly-In began in 1963
at Georgetown, Texas, spearheaded by the
late Tony Bingelis,
home-builder of personal airplanes and
prolific author of books on the subject.
The organization comprised only a handful of
EAA Chapters and every meeting had 30 or 40
attendees, with the result that little got
done beyond the barest essentials of
scheduling a get-together. It was
noteworthy progress when in 1965 the first
actual fly-in program took shape.
In 1975 the SWRFI moved to Schreiner Field (ERV)
at Kerrville, Texas, and began to thrive -
and reorganize. More EAA Chapters got
involved, and each chapter sent two
directors to meetings of the fly-in Board.
There was no required attendance; different
people from the same Chapter would show up
at successive meetings. Such haphazard
continuity meant that meetings were chaotic,
drawn-out affairs dreaded by many and
shunned by some. It was Management By Large
Group, and leadership turnover was high.
Nevertheless, more and more Southwestern
custom airplane builders flew to Kerrville
for the event. Overflow attendance at the
SWRFI made for problems. Not least of these
was the growth of Mooney Aircraft, whose
production plant was expanding and taking
more open land for its facilities. Despite
the many attractions of the pretty little
city of Kerrville, its airport was really
not big enough.
Some leaders at the time wanted to keep the
SWRFI small. Many other members saw that
the fly-in had outgrown Schreiner Field; the
leadership eventually voted in 1998 to move
the fly-in to Abilene.
The following year SWRFI restructured itself
with a Director from each Chapter, with
attendance required. This made the SWRFI
Board smaller and more efficient, but
attendance at Board meetings remained
unreliable and continuity continued to
suffer. This led to the formation of an
Executive Committee, including three
Directors-at-Large, who did the actual work
of running the fly-in.
SWRFI held forth in Abilene five years, in
the face of poor weather and worsening
attendance. The Board arranged for a
professional survey which revealed that the
membership longed for nothing more than a
return to the Hill Country near the center
of the state. Kerrville was still too small,
and other airfields declined the honor.
The response: in 2003, SWRFI moved to that
part of Texas where the Hill Country begins
- New Braunfels (BAZ) - and the next year
reorganized again into a self-perpetuating
Board - Board members elect other Board
members - whose structure tracks that of
most U.S. business corporations.
In only the second year at New Braunfels, a
cold front and heavy rains on the eve of the
fly-in revealed that while BAZ was about the
right size and in a good location it lacked
comprehensive drainage, sufficient ramp
space and adequate capacity for handling a
high
volume of airplane traffic, particularly on
the ground.
A new search for a suitable fly-in venue
brought the SWRFI to Hondo, Texas (HDO) on
the southwestern edge of the Hill Country.
The airfield at Hondo was once a major U.S.
Air Force training base and has been well
maintained over the years since. Its four
major
runways and vast ramp space provide
precisely the facilities required for a
large gathering of home-constructed
airplanes and their builders and admirers.
No airfield is perfect, but HDO comes very
close; the 2005 Fly-In was a great success.
We invite you to
look at the
reviews for several of the previous
years |
