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Every year, organizers of the Virginia Regional Festival of Flight in Suffolk roll the weather dice and this year, the weather gods responded with moving, unsettled weather, rain and thunderstorms up and down the East Coast. The Suffolk airport managed rather good flying conditions during the Festival until mid-afternoon Sunday.
Nearly 200 aircraft flew in from as far as Massachusetts, Michigan, and North Carolina. The RV and tent camping area held 130 campers, another growing area of the fly-in.
“Obviously the numbers are down from last year, due to weather in the surrounding areas...I know we were missing many attendees from the great state of North Carolina this year,” said Scott Huff and Lindy Kirkland, co-chairmen for aircraft parking.
Dee Whittington, the PR Chairman added, “The weather challenges stretched from South Carolina to Tennessee to Ohio and up into Pennsylvania and north.”
A Rally Adventure event was added to this year's activities offering a new way for pilots to fly their homebuilt or LSA planes against the clock. Due to the weather and a late start announcing the event, only five planes flew the 60 NM triangular course. Charles Collier, the organizer, said “The pilots were pleased with the course. This was a good year to work out the bugs in the system, but still things went rather well. All should expect an earlier announcement of the 2011 Rally Adventure on the web site, as well as more pilot handouts on Saturday of the fly-in.”
The hundreds of attendees enjoyed the 38 forum and six workshop sessions, the largest group of forums and workshops ever. Presenters from as far as the West Coast who brought expertise in areas such as alternative engines, engine overhaul, propeller maintenance and overhaul, weather judgment, corrosion in aging aircraft, and the latest in EFIS technology. Interestingly, on Sunday afternoon even after the rain started and as thunder clapped, several forums continued with attentive audiences.
Many attendees hopped on the two tractor-drawn shuttles to visit The Fighter Factory Restoration Center on the other side of the airport. That large hangar offered a peek at a major restoration facility which continues to bring back to flying status WWII and an increasing number of WWI era airplanes.
NASA exhibited for the first time at the Festival and offered kids the chance to use three flight simulators with expert teachers. In another location, a full motion P-51 simulator, provided a realistic flight experience. As always, the stomp rockets were sought out by the kids. The RC modelers, located next to the Youth Area, were pleased to be able to fly their electric RC models all day. In addition, the kids had a session each day with RC builder and flier, Harry Cahoon, to teach them about the sport.
The aircraft vendor area was host to mostly LSA aircraft, but organizers were pleased to have WACO Classic Aircraft fly in from Michigan. And from Chesapeake, a Bakeng Duce under construction showed excellent wood workmanship by students at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
Many photos as well as judging and drawing results will be soon available on the fly-in web site, www.VirginiaFlyIn.org.
