By Dan Namowitz, AOPA

When a private airport south of Lubbock, Texas, invited the public for an October Saturday of flying, food, and family fun, the airpark’s new owner summed things up with this comment on his airport’s Facebook page: “Wow is all I can say!”

The Oct.19 fly-in event at Lubbock Executive Airpark was clearly a hit with area aviation fans who turned out in hundreds to celebrate the re-emergence of an airport that as recently as last spring had appeared headed for other uses. That unhappy prospect had evaporated when Mark Drake, a local businessman and pilot who was keenly interested in keeping aviation alive at the airport, intervened.