History of the CAUFO, Inc.

The Capital Area Ultralight Flying Organization was founded in April 1982. The charter members of this organization were aviators seeking new and freer frontiers with few if any boundaries. They flew out of special airports called Ultraports, designed for their unique aircraft. These Ultraports as they were called were simple small grass airstrips with hanger and fuel facilities for the special machines that flew from them. There was some of the earliest ultralight activity near Austin at Bird's Nest Airport by Manor. An early Ultralight Only Park was PFX or Pflugerville International, now defunct and forgotten by many. Another one was Lite Flite located on 290 east of Manor whichcame and later went after the slump hit. That field was the beginning of an aircraft interest for one Reid Howell of Capella Aircraft fame. The last one is Bateman Ultraport out at Red Rock, Texas, the oldest operating Ultraport in the Austin area, and one of the oldest in Texas. It has been in continuious operation since 1979 and is still there!

The hey day of Ultralight activity saw Weedhoppers and Quicksilvers as the craft of preference for most pilots. There were other craft though, as varied in design as the imagination of the pilots who flew them: Pfledges, Sunbursts, Lazairs, Condors, Falcons, Eagles, Mitchell Wings, Spitfires, and on and on and on..... The club even had a group of dedicated unpowered aircraft pilots flying the Pterodactyl Pflege(Charlie Porter) and various other hang gliders(Carl Geers, one of the Club founders and weight shift instructors for Tally-Ho flying machines and the guy who has the dubious honor? of teaching both Joe and Janice Petty to fly!). The magazine of this exciting new sport was Glider Rider, the predecessor to the Ultralight Flying magazine of today.

Tom Vawter was elected as the founding President of the club with Founding executive board members, Randy Daugherty, Joe Petty and Bob Curtis. Original Founding Members still with CAUFO today are Jerry Morris, Joe Petty and Johnny Fry. Johnny seems to have had an affection for Gyro-Copters, Jerry a Weedhopper, now a modified Quicksilver MX, and Joe, well Joe had lots of different ones, mostly Quicksilvers and still flies a heavily modified Quicksilver MX today. The CAUFO continued for several years at an ever increasing rate of success, Dealers and Manufactures set up shops locally. It was a heady time for Ultralights in the Austin area.

Then broadcaster Hugh Downs, a major stockholder in a well known GA aircraft manufacturing company, did the now infamous 20/20 segment. Concurrent with that broadcast was the tragic loss of one of the founding members (Gary Michalk) in a flight accident at PFX Ultra Port. These events led to what amounted to a long tailspin for Ultralight activity in and around the Austin area. Interest for Ultralights went away, manufacturers closed their doors, even the general economy pitched in with that bust recession. Through all of this however, the hardcore flyers in the Austin Area keep up the faith, and kept flying!

Then in late 1989 or early 1990, CAUFO pulled out of its dive into nonexistence in the form of Walter Bishop. Walter had aquired an ultralight, learned to fly and wanted someone to fly with. Walter, a Yankee from way up north in Maine and a career Airforce retiree, thought it would be a good idea to get all the local Ultralight pilots back together and get some reincarnation of a club going once more. With help in the form of some contacts to the past officers supplied by Joe, the records and trappings of the old club surfaced. After some conversations with the locals, a meeting was set up and an ad placed in the Austin paper announcing the place and time for all ultralighters interested in forming a flying club. There was a large turnout of folks and the CAUFO was reformed and started flying high again!

The club was selected to host the 1994 State Championships. The overwhelming success in coordinating and handling the meet lead to the CAUFO being selected to stage the 1995 Region 5 Championships! Chalk up another success for the CAUFO.

Interest fell off somewhat in the next year and flying as an organization was limited to a few chance get togethers due to bad weather and bad timing, etc., etc. There was still lots of ultralight flying going on at various locations for the hardcore flyers. Flying from locations like Bird's Nest in Manor, Bateman Ultraport near Bateman, The Simmons' at Mustang Ridge, Alamo Aerolights near San Antonio and many other small private fields around the area, we kept flying! We still fly! Regularly!

The beginning of 1997 was a hard time for the CAUFO. There were many legal questions about insurance for club meets, liability as a group and other things which kept a few folks on the fringe and made some of the club members nervous.

In mid-1997 the Capital Area Ultralight Flying Organization had a meeting to disband the club with the purpose of reorganizing, and the club's assets were distributed back the the membership. In the following months, with much work by the former members, the club was reformed as a corporation and became The Capitol Area Ultralight Flying Organization, Inc.

Today the club has over FORTY active members and is once again promoting the sport of Ultralight aviation. The officers and members of the new club continue to move forward with a strong commitment to promote safe flying through education of flyers and non-flyers, and create and nurture a new and more family oriented ultralight flying environment for we are one large family.

The family known as the Capital Area Ultralight Flying Organization, Inc.

So, if you are in Central Texas and hear the familiar drone of a two-stroke overhead, it is probably a member of the CAUFO!

The Club has regular meetings and fly-ins with informal meetings at the fly-ins.
The club also sponsors some great competitions and is family oriented.
The officers and members of the CAUFO invite you to come on out, and bring the wife and kids.
There will be plenty of hanger flying and maybe a kite flying contest if it is too windy to fly ultralights!