Why fly-in breakfasts ?

After reading the "Now for something completely different" thread, I have not had any negative issues with EAA'ers being unfriendly, but I certainly don't understand why so many EAA chapters do fly-in breakfasts. How many people are actually going to be able to fly-in for a breakfast? It is too early to have time to pull out your plane and fly there. Our EAA Chapter 172 (near Augusta, Ga.) has our meetings the second Saturday during lunch time. People can actually fly-in from other areas for our meetings and enjoy a good lunch with us. I check the EAA Aviation Calendar of Events on a regular basis looking for places to go and new EAA'ers to meet. All the groups within 150 miles of me do breakfasts instead of lunch except for the EAA chapter at St. Simons. Unfortunately they have their lunches and meetings on Sunday. Since I attend church, I am not able to fly down there either.

I would love so much to pull out my old Cherokee and fly around to the various EAA chapters within an hour’s flight of KBXG and meet other fellow aviation enthusiasts.

So...why do they all have fly-in breakfasts? Do they really not want outsiders flying in?

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Originally Posted by MickYoumans

After reading the "Now for something completely different" thread, I have not had any negative issues with EAA'ers being unfriendly, but I certainly don't understand why so many EAA chapters do fly-in breakfasts.

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My opinion is that a fly-in breakfast is a 2-3-4 hour event for most involved. It starts at daylight and everyone is finished eating, cleaning up, etc. well before noon. That means they have the remainder of the day to fly more, go home and do chores, etc. Fly-in lunches take a big bite out of the middle of the day, and leave you with a fragment of a morning and a fragment of an afternoon if you have other responsibilities.

Also, the weather is generally better for fly-in breakfasts. The winds are lighter, the air is cooler, and there are fewer thunderstorms threatening your ability to get home safely.

A few years ago the EAA chapter here had a fly-in chili lunch that was very successful. Of course, perfect weather usually helps.

The pancake breakfast is the best deal going, pancakes are cheap and easy to make and that's what it's all about.

I won't claim to know the history of fly-in breakfasts, but the reasons given sound about right. Our chapter holds our regular meeting on the 3rd Monday of the month @ 7:30 in the evening. When the days are long and the weather is nice we get some fly-in traffic. Our pancakes are on the Saturday following the meeting and we get a pretty good turnout even when flying is not an option. When the weather is nice we always get at least a few flying in.

While not an EAA function, there is an aviation booster club in Ponca City, Oklahoma that puts on an excellent breakfast the first Saturday of each month. The often serve over 400 people and occasionally have as many as 100 airplanes on the ramp.

Thermals. Light fixed wings are much more relaxing to fly in calm cooler air.One reason I like rotorcraft, a very, very high tolerance for turbulence..

Chapter 1310 tries to have an eating event almost every month. Breakfasts are good because the cost of materials is still relatively low. We coordinate with the area FAA Safety Team manager, and have a seminar twice a year with a burger and hot dog cookout following. We once tried having the meal before the seminar, but we had a hard time breaking up the group to start the seminar. Our biggest event is a corn roast and cookout in August. (We actually boil the corn, but we got complaints that a corn boil sounds like a foot disease.) We tried a spaghetti lunch twice, and I thought they worked out well, but the other cooking members didn't seem to like it.

Soup and sandwiches are inexpensive, easy and can be eaten any time during the day......

Mick,

I would agreee that the morning weather likely contributed to the popularity of the fly-in breakfast and as pointed out earlier, you have the remainder of the day for other activites. Or maybe it was Wilbur and Orville who liked pancakes more than sandwiches. :) This one may be lost to aviation foklore.

But one thought did occur while reading the thread. Has any chapter (or chapters) teamed up with another chapter in the area to hold two events on the same day, one chapter hosts a fly-in breakfast and the other a lunch. Just wondering.

Steve

That would be a lot of fun to fly-OUT to a fly-IN. :). I saw on the EAA calendar where the Vidalia Ga chapter was having a fly-OUT this weekend. I think that would really be fun to get a group of planes together to fly to another location.

EAA Chapter 174 has a fly-out volunteer that chooses a local event or destination and works out a time good for everyone to meet up.

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Or maybe it was Wilbur and Orville who liked pancakes more than sandwiches.

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This has my vote.

My first thought when reading the title of the thread was "because that's what they've always done."

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Originally Posted by Hangar10

I won't claim to know the history of fly-in breakfasts, but the reasons given sound about right. Our chapter holds our regular meeting on the 3rd Monday of the month @ 7:30 in the evening. When the days are long and the weather is nice we get some fly-in traffic. Our pancakes are on the Saturday following the meeting and we get a pretty good turnout even when flying is not an option. When the weather is nice we always get at least a few flying in.

While not an EAA function, there is an aviation booster club in Ponca City, Oklahoma that puts on an excellent breakfast the first Saturday of each month. The often serve over 400 people and occasionally have as many as 100 airplanes on the ramp.

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Mark:
Sounds like this Saturday is pancke day, right? I may try to come over if the weather is good.

Marshall

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Originally Posted by malexander

Mark:
Sounds like this Saturday is pancke day, right? I may try to come over if the weather is good.

Marshall

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Actually Marshall, we've canceled pancakes this month because it fell on Thanksgiving weekend. Sorry. Pancakes will start back up at chapter 10 in January... hope you can come join us sometime.

Mark

I guess I do not understand the big deal. I have been flying to FIBs for 30+ years. I leave the ground and use the talents GOD has given me. I do not need a reason to go anywhere or do anything in my birds. We all learned to fly by CHOICE. Wherever or whenever we choose to break the bonds of earth is truly a matter of CHOICE.
FIBs are great fund raisers for flying clubs, EAA chapters, AOPA groups, Charities, FBOs, all sorts of public endeavors. Many I have attended are private airport owners that just like to have their friends together to enjoy a meal as a group. Don't expect all things to be done for a particular reason. Ride the air and enjoy.

While not actually an EAA chapter, Pegasus Airpark in Arizona (5az3) tried the 'FLYOUT' style and it worked great. About 30 aircraft left at 8:00am and headed to the Coolidge "Fly-In" Pancake breakfast. The reverse order of flight worked well since it allowed family members of people with two seater's to hop in the spare seats of the big birds with empty seats. Besides, you got to meet neighbors at the '8:00am' coffee gathering before takeoff. Normally, in the 45 or so hangers we have you may never run across your neighbor, this way you get to meet them and fly alongside them to the destination airport. The only mistake I made was I was the slowest bird in the flock and I got to leave last! But we all stayed on a common frequency and watched out for one another.

On the other side of the coin, Steller Airpark has a nice group to 'flyout' when we have our Airpark pancake 'fly-in'..

This is a video of our second fly-in :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsEQx9w-0VQ

Thanks...ED C

In our case, the flying club owns the airport and leases hangar building space to hangar owners for 'so much a square foot'. Basically this pays the expenses, taxes, etc. for the airport. The fly/drive/walk/in breakfast is for community exposure and relations. We also do the Young Eagles event in cooperation with the local EAA Chapter. Works well for both of us.
www.vikingflyingclub.community.officelive.com
Mike

For us, the pancake breakfast is more a community involvement event than anything. While we do have folks that fly in for breakfast, we sell 90+ percent of our meals to folks in the community. It's more about getting the folks in our little city to realize that yes, we do have an airport, and that it's pretty cool! Everyone really seems to enjoy seeing the airplanes that fly in, as well as local contributors, like the medical center helicopter, police and fire, etc.

With that in mind, would we have more of each, attendees and pilots/aircraft, if one were to move it to the middle of the day? That's a good question. I've been to Chicken-cues in the summer, and the only folks that attended were pilots and planes (not that it's a bad thing), and nary a community member. So I guess it depends on the intent of the event. The Upper Midwest seems to thrive on pancakes! :-)

~Chris

I always look at it like: Eating ANY time of the day is a GREAT excuse to fly!
Nothing like getting out early in the morning and firing up the RV!
Nordo

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Originally Posted by Steve Buss

Mick,

I would agreee that the morning weather likely contributed to the popularity of the fly-in breakfast and as pointed out earlier, you have the remainder of the day for other activites. Or maybe it was Wilbur and Orville who liked pancakes more than sandwiches. :) This one may be lost to aviation foklore.

But one thought did occur while reading the thread. Has any chapter (or chapters) teamed up with another chapter in the area to hold two events on the same day, one chapter hosts a fly-in breakfast and the other a lunch. Just wondering.

Steve

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At our Board Meeting a couple weeks ago, Chapter 307 actually discussed the idea of a "progressive dinner" type event in the area. It would likely start in the early-afternoon (or might even be all day) and involve up three local airports. We haven't really worked out the details but it was an interesting idea that came up.