The government owned land near San Antonio, Texas, and had established Ft Sam Houston there years earlier. It seemed a logical choice for a training site, and its selection was approved. The airplane and the mechanics were shipped to the Texas site, but there was a problem with the officers.

Humphreys, detached temporarily from the Corps of Engineers for flight training, was reassigned to the Engineer School. Lahm, detached from the cavalry for the legal limit of four years, was ordered back to the horses. So the Army had an airplane, but no pilots. Only Lieutenant Foulois, with about three hours of flying time in training, was left to be considered. He became the Army's pilot, and went to Ft Sam Houston, where he made the first flight, which was also his first solo flight, on 2 March 1910.

The Army lacked funds to buy more aircraft, in spite of repeated requests to Congress for appropriations. But it got one anyway, in February 1911. A new Type B Wright plane, purchased by Robert F. Collier and loaned by him to the Army, arrived at Ft Sam Houston along with Wright pilot P. O. Parmelee, who checked out Lieutenant Foulois in the different control system of the new plane.

The first appropriation for military aeronautics as such followed when Congress approved the War Department appropriations for fiscal year 1912. In those funds was $125,000 specifically for aeronautics, and $25,000 of that was made immediately available. Three Wright airplanes and two Curtiss types were ordered.

Lieutenant. G. E. M. Kelly's death in the crash of one of the Curtiss airplanes was followed by an order ending flying from the drill ground at Ft Sam Houston. By then the War Department was committed to training in the College Park area again. It was established and training began there, moving to winter quarters in Augusta, Georgia, when the weather turned cooler and then moving back in the spring.