Our chapter started from humble beginnings as a fledgling ultralight club in 2001 with about 20 members. Our first club president, Tony, was from Florida, so our club was patterned somewhat after the Flying Gators club located there. We adopted the name “Tree Top Flyers” very early on, which was fairly descriptive of our flying back then. Tony left to return to Florida before his term ended, and another member, Karl, was briefly president during 2001, but resigned later that year. Our current president, Randy Berry, then became president in late 2001 and was elected president every year afterwards until the years 2014 and 2015, when he declined to run for president again. He was later asked to consider running again in 2016, was elected president, and has occupied that position every year since then.
We became a USUA club in 2002 through 2007. That was near the end of the "golden years" of the "ultralight" phenomenon, so most of us flew ultralight aircraft at that time, even though several of us were already private pilots. Some familiar aircraft types owned by members were Kolb, Challenger, Quicksilver, Slipstream, and Spitfire. among others. Mostly 2-cycle Rotax and Cuyuna engines powered our aircraft back then, although there were a few other types (Simonini, 2si, AMW, rotary). Somewhat later, the Rotax 912 4-cycle engine came on the scene. We also became a non-profit organization through the State of South Carolina during that time.
From 2001 until mid-2006, most of us were based at a small country airfield named "Whisper Field", located near Pelion, SC. It had criss-crossed grass runways of 1700' (runways 17/35) and 1400' (runways 27/9). We even built a nice little clubhouse there with beach house style doors that raised on the sides in warm weather, a stove, refrigerator, lights, running hot/cold water, AC, and a firepit. It stills stands to this day, although it is unoccupied. We had some great times and even some fly-ins there. Unfortunately, bad relations with the owners forced us to leave in mid-2006, and our club was homeless for awhile. Also, our club had begun to need longer runways and better facilities for our evolving aircraft, meetings, and flying events.
In early 2007, we began meeting at what was then named "Lexington County Airport" (7J1 and later 2SC8) located near Gaston, SC. One of our members, Don, purchased that property in 2006. In those early days, the airport was in a sad state with a run down runway, a number of dilapidated small hangars, and one larger hangar, all of which were literally about to fall down, so our first meetings were held outside under a mimosa tree (which has since been removed) in front of the large hangar. Don has done an amazing job of renovating and transforming that airport since then. When Lexington County purchased Pelion Corporate Airport (6J0), there was briefly a "Lexington County Airport at Gaston" and a "Lexington County Airport at Pelion". Due to the resulting confusion, Don renamed his airport simply "Gaston Airport" with an airport ID of 2SC8. We thank him for his generosity in hosting our club/chapter during that time period.
Later, the chapter moved over to an actual airport with a small terminal building, beacon, paved runway, and taxiways known as Corporate Airport (6J0) owned by the town of Pelion, SC at the time. At first we congregated in the small terminal building there, but we quickly outgrew that facility. After the airport was purchased by the County of Lexington, SC, one of our members, David, who was a deputy sheriff with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department (LCSD), arranged for us to meet in the South Region Service Center conference room located near the entrance to the airport. Although David later retired and moved on, we continued our great association with Lexington County and LCSD, so 6J0 still remains our home base, and a number of our members lease hangars there. However, our chapter eventually even outgrew that facility, so we started holding our chapter meetings and events at a member's nice, large, luxurious hangar at Gilbert International Airpark (SC45), and we still normally meet there to this day. Thank you, Ron, for your generosity. Lexington County Airport is starting to rapidly grow at this writing. The runway has been widened and repaved with concrete, and the old broken up asphalt taxiway was recently dug up and replaced with a nice concrete one. There are plans to extend the current 4300' runway to over 5000' and build a larger terminal there as well, so perhaps one day soon we will resume our meetings there.
The Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) and sport pilot rules were finalized by the FAA and put into effect by 2004. Most of us converted our "ultralight-like" aircraft to Experimental Light Sport Aircraft (ELSA's) by the end of 2007. Shortly thereafter, our club began to undergo a transformation. Since then, most of us have upgraded to GA, Light Sport, or Experimental aircraft. As a result, it became apparent that becoming an EAA chapter suited our needs better than USUA. Consequently, in early 2008, we petitioned EAA to become an EAA chapter, established a new set of bylaws, and officially became EAA Chapter #1467. We have coordinated and conducted many monthly chapter meetings and several successful chapter fly-ins since then. At this writing, our EAA chapter continues to grow, mature, and prosper. In fact, at this writing, we have over 100 members and recently became a "tax exempt" 501(c)(3) corporation through the State of South Carolina and the IRS.