This has my vote.Or maybe it was Wilbur and Orville who liked pancakes more than sandwiches.
My first thought when reading the title of the thread was "because that's what they've always done."
This has my vote.Or maybe it was Wilbur and Orville who liked pancakes more than sandwiches.
My first thought when reading the title of the thread was "because that's what they've always done."
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
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 :
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
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.