Aviation destination: Wayne County Airport hosts fly-in event, pancake breakfast

WAYNE TWP. − Roughly 200 aviators and pilot wannabes converged at the Wayne County Airport over the weekend.

Some flew in, while others drove. It didn't matter. They were there for a pancake breakfast and to learn more about flying.

Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 846 on Saturday hosted its fifth annual fly-in, a fundraiser meant to get youth involved in aviation and provide scholarships for future pilots or those seeking a career in aviation or a related field, said Greg Cantrell the secretary of the chapter and organizer of the event.

Flying high at 90:Army veteran parachutes from plane on his birthday

Without a set price, the chapter served all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and accepted donations.

“Each year we send a student between the age of 16 and 18 up to the air academy at Oshkosh, Wisconsin during the last week of July,” Cantrell said.

Some fly for work, others for fun

At around 6:30 a.m., volunteers from the chapter arrived to prep the food and set up the tables before welcoming people.

Nearly 40 pilots flew in to show off their planes while others drove to the event with their families to enjoy the breakfast and aviation talks.

Some pilots had purchased their airplane, others built their own plane from a kit and a few built theirs from scratch.

Jack Doyle said he flew his first plane at the age of 15. He came to the event in his RANS 6 kit plane that he bought in 2006.

“It’s like the 1930s technology, very simple, built out of steel and aluminum covered in fabric,” Doyle said. His plane has a ROTAX 912 engine, which is a high-technology engine manufactured in Austria.

On the other hand, it took Karl Johnson two years to build his plane with his friend. “It was someone else's project but he didn’t do it and I had a hanger full of extra parts,” Johnson said.

His red and green 601 XL-B airplane attracted the attention of many. He added a few modifications to upgrade the model like having a Honda engine. Johnson said building airplanes from scratch is one way to get into aviation as it’s cheaper to buy separate parts of the plane and put it together.

If you don’t fly for work, you can fly for fun, he said. Since retiring from his job as a pilot, Johnson has been flying for enjoyment.

“I had a dream to do this years ago before flying for a living. I wanted to have my airplane and my own hanger,” he said. “I can’t tell you how blessed I feel way beyond what I deserve and it’s so much fun to be able to walk out of your back door and open the hanger’s door and fly,” he said.

Wayne County Radio Control Club joins the fun

The Wayne County Radio Control Club had a section in the event for children to try flying RC planes. As the flying characteristics are similar to real airplanes, flying an RC plane can be an introductory lesson for youngsters.

“Probably one of the biggest things that prevents kids from getting involved in aviation is the expense. It’s expensive to take lessons, but you can learn a lot about flying by flying radio control planes,” Cantrell said.

During the event, the chapter promoted one of their Young Eagles program.

Fly like an Eagle:Wooster High senior soars toward goal of top Scouting honor

The program, which runs twice a year, offers free airplane rides to children between the age of 8 to 15. Treasurer of the chapter and Coordinator for the Young Eagles program, Gary Baker, said the chapter has offered the program for 30 years.

“It started after we noticed a reduction of pilots in aviation in general,” Baker said.

The program is typically held between April and August with sign-ups on the chapter’s website.

Volunteer pilots typically walk children through airports and talk about aircraft and flying, then each child gets a 20-minute ride and gets to fly the aircraft.

“We flew around 3,400 kids in the last 30 years,” Baker said.

The program also offers some benefits like free EAA membership, online ground flying lessons, and exposure to aviation scholarships.

“It doesn’t have to be for a career, we want to expose the youth to aviation to let them know what’s out there,” he said.

As a next step, the chapter hopes to hold more than one pancake breakfast fundraiser and be able to sponsor more youth for the aviation scholarship.

“There have been some years when we have two candidates, but we had to choose one, so we hope that at some point we can choose more than one student at a time,” Cantrell said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Experimental Aircraft Assoc. #846 hosts fly-in at Wayne County Airport