The quintessential flying activity that we all train for is the $100 hamburger. The term is a bit outdated because the amount hasn't hanged in the last 40 years or more and 2 hours of flying plus a burger now costs a bit more. I have not gotten as much flying this month for various reasons but I had heard about this fly in early in the week and put it on my calendar.
Most fly in events are based around airplanes but this one was a bit different. The town does a fall festival next to the airport. They added planes to the festival so it was a festival plus.
Fitzgerald airport has 2 runways, one is grass which they closed so people could park and camp. Yes I said the dirty word, camp. You could arrive the night before, hang out, watch a movie outside and then sleep on the ground by your plane.
I am told by the camping participants that the temperatures were nice, no rain but plenty of mosquitos. I chose option 2, fly in day of the event. It was billed as a hamburger fly in and it delivered. The weather forecasts had been good but when I awoke it was 200 OVC at Fitzgerald and there were major storms South of us moving North.
I knew the fog would burn off well before I left but I was concerned about the rain. As it turned out it stayed well South until after my return. I did get a few minutes in the clouds but both arrivals were VFR.
They were parking planes on the grass runway but I had requested hard surface parking. They directed me to an unused area of the ramp and after securing the bird, they shuttled me to the event in a golf cart. The organizers were very friendly and had done a great job creating a good experience for the pilots.
The festival is small but nice. Lots of local merchants selling stuff I didn't need. The bird house man had "Special" bird houses. It was not clear if special was a compliment or not but they were suspiciously segregated from the other bird houses.
They had face painting, bouncy houses and live music but the unique attraction was the antique tractors. I have no knowledge of tractors but I could tell that these were some well cared for pieces of history. They had a motor running that was manufactured in 1919, pretty good for 104 years.
The fly in portion was small with maybe 15-20 total aircraft, hard to tell as people were coming and going. I spent some time wandering around the airplanes talking to the other pilots and passenger.
As the noon hour approached I returned to the pilots lounge. OK, less of a lounge and more of a roped off area for the flight crews. The Rotary was hosting and had set up tents, tables and the food. It is the pilot's equivalent of the VIP room.
We sat around, talked airplanes and ate burgers. The burgers lunch was $10 which included a fresh grilled burger, chips, cookies and drinks. They make a profit which funds their charity work so it was tasty and morally satisfying.
There was a raffle for free gas but watching the storms, I was not sure if the weather would hold so I left early and got another lift to my plane. My driver was the wife of a Bonanza pilot, always good to meet other Beech families. I was delivered to my plane and after a few checks fired up and headed out.
There was a Mooney on final inbound for his burger and I could hear others heading that way on the radio. After the Mooney cleared the runway, I took off and headed home. The weather held and though they put me on the RNAV 14 approach, I had the airport over 20 miles out. Tower offered me the straight in but with a 20 knot direct crosswind, I took the circle for the easy landing. The plane was soon cleaned up, fueled and ready for our next adventure.
