ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

48th Annual Fly-in

During the past 48 consecutive years, EAA Chapter 88 of Wichita, Kansas has held their annual fly-in. Our home airport is in Newton, 25 miles north of Wichita. The chapter's 70 members once again came together to  produce one of the best attended events in years.  The fly-in is coordinated with the Chisholm Trail Festival held that same day in Newton.

Major events included breakfast and lunch, several vendors, rocket and model airplane displays, two candy drops, aircraft judging, and two performance events.  Those being an estimated take-off distance and a spot landing contest.

The day's temperature soared to above 100 degrees with a Density Altitude of 4,500 feet. No problems were encountered except the runway ate one of my tires.  See Avenger's post "Summer Flight for details).

The photos describe what characteristically went on Saturday.  One member hosted about 20 guests at their home the previous Friday noon for lunch.  That was followed by a pot luck meal at the airport in the evening.  Saturday evening was the program and awards banquet.

Needless to say, everyone was tired at day's end but all were happy and had a grand time, especially those going home with recognition plaques or cash prizes.


Paul D. Fiebich
EAA Chapter 88 President

And a few more photos.

Paul D. Fiebich

Paul,
I wish I had some of these pictures when I made  the book for Wayne. You have have that smoke stuff down very well. You weren't a hippie in the 60's were you?
Dick

you know anything about that BD-5? i have always thought those were awesome little planes but never had the chance to see one in person. i have read that i could never fit in one but man what a blast it would have to be to fly. anyway congrats on a great event, we always love ours here at chapter 77. i like the idea of the candy drop, maybe i can suggest that to our club for next year

I forgot to  give credit for the people behind the candy drop, Ron Blum made 100 12" square plastic parachutes, added shroud lines and tied them around wrapped pieces of candy like tootsie rolls and mints.  He then rolled up the 'chutes and packaged them into three tennis ball cans.  The paratroopers exited their can with precision (sort of, some jumped out prematurely and hit me in the face) and followed an orderly pattern to the drop zone.  One of the pre-packed paratroopers was to be used for practice but the day that was to happen, it was too windy.

Brent Boggs (shown  with Young Eagle coordinator below) was the photographer.  He did a great job of capturing the action.  The drop was made from about 300 feet to give the troopers time to open their 'chutes and correct for windage enroute to the target.  These 'troopers have no inertia, if there were no wind, they would drop directly  below the point where they jumped.  In a wind, they float like a balloon.

Not being able to see the 'troopers once they were away, I had to  rely on ground reconnaissance to make corrections for the second drop.  The event was a big hit.  After retrieving a parachute, the kids sought out the "candy lady" who gave them all sorts  of sugar-free candy (Skittles), crackers etc.  We stayed away from chocolate because it would melt.

The other photo below shows two of our chapter members judging aircraft, we had judging  prizes as well as voting prizes  for the pilots.

Finally there is a photo of yours truly presenting the Member  of  the Year award to Doug Range for his continuing efforts supporting and promoting our EAA chapter 88  throughout the year.

Paul Fiebich

Dick, you are old enough to know about the  '60's, "if you remember  it, you weren't there"

anonymous

Paul, Your Email address is wrong on Your webpage. Charlie

Hi Charlie,  I just checked it and  on the home page it is correct:  fiebichpv@aol.com.  I even sent myself an e-mail  and it worked.

There is one group of people without whom we would never have a fly-in;  the folks who run the airport!  In this case it is Kevin, the airport manager and Randy, the next guy in line.  Speaking of line, here he is on the line servicing one of the planes during the fly-in.  These men really hustled to meet our needs, and accommodated our every request whether it was for heavy stuff like barricades to fans for circulating air, they did it all.  They even offered an avgas fuel discount for the fly-in day!

Kudos to the guys at Newton Municipal Airport (EWK) in Newton, Kansas

Paul Fiebich

Brian FitzGerald has posted a number of photos and more descriptions of the EAA chapter 88 fly-in on his blog  Sky  Surfing   http://fitzvideo.com/sky_surfing/  While  there, you might enjoy looking at other entries of his trips.  All have good photos and interesting dialogue.

Paul Fiebich