Article and Photos By Ted Luebbers
Despite the good television weather forecast, when members of the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534 woke up on October 29 to host their once previously postponed Fly-In, the sky was a solid overcast with low-lying cloud cover.
They tried to have this event at the beginning of the month but hurricane Ian caused a postponement to the Fly-In to the last Saturday of the month hoping to get better weather.
It finally took place at the Leesburg International Airport at Leesburg, Florida but the prospect of having any planes fly in looked bleak. The airport was classified as Instrument Flight Rules ( IFR ) with the overcast just slightly above 500 feet.
Fortunately, this event had been billed as a Fly-In / Drive-In and people from Central Florida who may or may not be EAA members or those interested in aviation, in general, were invited.
The idea had been to see if they could find some folks who may be looking for an active EAA chapter or aviation enthusiasts who might like to join the group and learn more about building an airplane.
The latter would then join this chapter as well as the National Association. They thought this might be a good way to increase the membership for both.
It was estimated that around 60 people were served blueberry pancakes, sausage coffee and juice.
It turned out that because of the bad flying situation they only had one plane show up for the pancake breakfast. However, the grass parking lot across from the EAA hangar was full of cars. Members mentioned they had never seen so many cars there before.
Most of the people who drove in had never been there before and knew nothing about what the chapter was doing.
This was a great opportunity to spread the word and find some new members. Some people were National EAA members who had recently retired to Florida and had not found a local chapter and others were aviation enthusiasts who were interested in what the Leesburg chapter was doing.
Steve Tilford, Chapter 534 President, said they were able to recruit three new members on the spot.
While handing out sumptuous blueberry pancakes, the chapter’s Vice President, John Weber had a person walk up to him and anonymously donate $1100. to the chapter. Wow, that certainly uplifted the members’ outlook on the lack of aircraft.
Visitors also donated another $400. to the chapter treasury, so you can say that financially the Drive-In part of the event was a success.
The one airplane that braved the sky to attend came from Loves Landing, in Weirsdale, FL about a 10-minute flight to Leesburg. They had to fly at 500 feet just under the overcast.
When they reached the airport and checked in with the tower they were given “special VFR permission” to land. When they left for home later that morning the ceiling had lifted considerably.
It is an old story, Fly-Ins are always weather dependent and if you’re lucky the weather gods will bless you. Good pilots will look at their favorite weather app prior to taking off and weigh their flying skills versus what they see.
Most attendees go to Fly-Ins using Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and if the weather is iffy, why tempt fate. That is the way it should be.
