Due to the exceptional team of organizers and volunteers that made it happen, the 2024 EAA 983 Fly-In & Car Show set several records for our recent Fly-Ins. I’ve named a few of our volunteers below, but the significant majority remain unrecognized but most appreciated contributors! Oh, and by the way, we should probably give some credit to the perfect Fly-In weather?
Editors Note: Several recent Fly-Ins were lead by committee because we were unable to find anyone to take the lead. This year Bob Pastusek returned to 983 tradition with the Vice President leading the Fly In. He did an outstanding job!
Attendance: Some of the following numbers are “expert estimates” by project leaders; we’ll do a better count next year:
Total Attendance: 450 (my estimate; based primarily on food sold & YE participants)
Total Aircraft Attending: 70, including 5 autogyros (Air Boss estimate)
Total Show Cars Attending: 62 (Car Show Leader)
Visitor cars (at The Nutcracker): 60 (my estimate)
Local Golf Carts (at McJunkin’s): 40 (my estimate)
Meals Sold: 300 (Food Committee estimate)
Young Eagles Flown: 75 (including 65 first-time fliers), with 10 pilots. (accurate count)
Area Setup and Support: About fifteen volunteers, led by Tom Thibault, completed planning and long-lead activities starting in May, and set up the airfield and supporting areas on 27 September.
The PPOA staff, led by Daniel VanPatten, set up a large dining tent, mowed the airfield, cleaned and prepped the pavilion, and briefed the security staff.
We need to provide coffee for the volunteers early on the Fly-In day (at Kersie’s?).
Visitors: Starting at first light (about 7AM) on Saturday morning, aircraft, show cars and visitors started arriving at the airfield. (Plus a few on Friday)
Without directors available, they parked cars and airplanes where they thought best; some had to be moved; particularly cars at the Pavilion.
Car parking at the Nutcracker Golf Course went well; it could have been improved with additional volunteers, and by starting earlier. (See Mike Hustak notes)
Driving-in visitors were shuttled to/from the Airpark Pavilion, where our local EMS and Fire Department positioned equipment for public review. The DeCordova Volunteer Fire Department provided a fire engine and crew on very short notice.
Steve Bloomquist rented 2 6-passenger golf carts for our use; a godsend!
Entertainment: The Van Jam trio entertained at the Pavilion from 1000-1400. Well received!! Some of the show cars had ‘50’s music piped in via Sirius XM
Announcer: Karen Woodward served as the FlyIn announcer, providing specifics about vendors, ongoing activities, and things available to see and do.
The PA system was not set up in advance and then proved inadequate to the need.
Air Boss: Tom Woodward served as the Air Boss and kept the aircraft moving safely and efficiently, with no accidents, no incidents and no close calls!
We used runway 01 for the first time in recent years. This generated some congestion at taxiway K with the Young Eagle operation there.
His working position on the airfield needs to be adjusted for better overall visibility.
Consider providing the ground marshallers with radios to receive/comply with Air Boss directions.
Food: Deanna Thibault and Sue Cole led a massive effort, with 8 volunteers, to provide food for our visitors. The food was excellent in quality and taste—my personal observation.
They made adjustments to the cooking and serving area set up due to a ground water leak that made the original arrangement unworkable, but this was resolved by some plywood-sheeted walking areas and rearrangement of the service area. Thank you—whoever stepped up to this task…
We did not have sufficient volunteers to provide two full work shifts, so most of the food service folks worked all day, and were therefore not able to look over the excellent turn out of cars and airplanes. We really need additional volunteers if we intend to provide food service as a Chapter money-making part of our future Fly-In’s!
Silent Auction: Bill Eslick, Dennis Finley and their volunteers ran the Silent Auction out of the EAA hangar.
This was far and away the most significant of our fundraising efforts and generated about $2,300 toward our community outreach and other charitable activities.
We most sincerely appreciate your personal generous donation of auction items, as well as the many donations by our community sponsors! Now is not too soon to set aside unneeded/unused items for next year’s auction. We’ll collect and store them if necessary…
Young Eagles: John Bowen, Geneva and Bruce McJunkin ran the Young Eagle ground operation out of Mike Kersey’s hangar, and flight operations from just to the south of Taxiway K.
This separated the Young Eagles from other ground operations, and particularly the taxiing aircraft. This change was well received by all. Mike has volunteered use of his hangar next year for this event.
The YE ground operation included flight simulator sessions, directed by Charlie Adams, and briefings by Bob Moreau. Both were very well received by our young visitors! We’ll continue to include these in future YE events.
Show Cars: Ron Bernier directed the Show Car operations. Most cars came from outside Pecan, although there are a significant number available in garages at Pecan.
We were able to park a record number of show cars by using a previously unusable area thanks to Daniel VanPatten’s work over the summer to regrade it.
Some folks have suggested we limit show car participation to focus/provide more room for airplanes. I would very much appreciate your thoughts on this alternative.
Volunteers: Based on the positive comments received from many attendees, I believe the word will spread about the value of this event to both Pecan and local residents. We are planning now to accommodate more show cars and airplanes, and to increase the relevant support required. This will require a better plan for/commitment by volunteers than we had this year. Specifically, every position needs to have two volunteers pre-assigned. This will allow each to work half of the Fly-In period and to provide some surge capability if needed. I hope you will find this worth your time when we seek assistance for next year’s Fly-In & Car Show.
In Conclusion: Tom Thibault and I drove the airfield, Nutcracker parking, and all areas used for this event. We picked up two pieces of paper and one errant sign in the entire area. The place was cleaner than when we started on Friday! A most sincere thanks to each of you for that!!
The EAA 983 Website is being updated with links to all the pictures from the Fly-In.
Bob Pastusek
