REFLECTOR: Southwest Regional Fly-In

[Scott Baker]

Since there is a lot of discussion regarding the possibility of having a 
Velocity get-together at the Southwest Regional Fly-In - I thought it would 
be a good idea to offer a PIREP of my visit to Hondo earlier this year.

The Event itself is a diamond in the rough.  The Hondo Airport has lots of 
runways - all of them long, and each supported by taxiways.  There is no 
problem whatsoever with getting volumes of traffic in and out.  The ramp 
space is huge - lots of room for parking.  The SWRFI is about the same size 
as the Golden West Fly In - It has two large hangars that are placed into 
service for the indoor vendors.  The outdoor vendors are well spaced (better 
than Denver, better than Marysville).  Even though this is a multi-day 
event, you can easily see "all there is to see" in one day.  The SWRFI 
people _really_ appreciate people visiting.  They are quick to welcome folks 
and will really go out of their way to offer any assistance that you might 
require.  Hondo Airport is a former military training base - and the airport 
area and surrounding grounds is large and well cared for.  Tent camping and 
RV camping looks well organized - and the grounds are very close to the 
flight line.
All of this being said, Hondo - located about 30-miles outside of San 
Antonio - is a small town with very few restaurants or hotels.  My 
suggestion is to rent a car and stay in San Antonio.  The roads are 4-lane 
and do not have much traffic.  The SWRFI people had a national rental car 
company support the program - however the rental car people were slow to 
organize and bring out quantities of cars for the event.   Typical of these 
events, on Sunday the airport was a ghost town.  Most of the visiting 
aircraft left Saturday afternoon - I think I counted 20-aircraft on the 
ramp!

Scott B.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gattenby at GBRonline.com>
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Convention at the SW Regional


> The EAA Texas regional is on my birthday...
> It would make it hard for my wife to say NO!!
>
> Noel
>
>
> ----- Original Message Follows -----
> From: Scott Derrick <scott at tnstaafl.net>
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
> <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Subject: REFLECTOR: Convention at the SW Regional
> Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 08:50:22 -0700
>
>> I also vote for the Regional EAA in Texas, not that living
>> in New Mexico  is influencing my decision! :-)
>>
>> I would think that having it during the convention would
>> be best, there  would be plenty of time to see the
>> convention and meet every day for  breakfast, lunch or
>> Dinner and other times to to look at everybody's
>> beautiful birds.
>>
>> Not all of us would want to spend more than a couple days
>> and combining  the two events would work out great for us
>> short on travel time.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>> SlvEgl99 at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> > Have it at the Texas Regional, check dates and have it
>> > the weekend  before or after so people could concentrate
>> > on Velocity for a few days  yet get the advantages of an
>> >  EAA fly-in if they are so inclined.
>> > Bob Wood
>> > N658SE
>> >
>> >
>> >
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