Metro East Illinois Fall Fly-Ins Celebrate Grass (Runway) Roots Aviation

By Carmelo Turdo

The Midwest Aviation community remains active through the fall season, and The Aero Experience coverage of general aviation events continues featuring two Metro-East Illinois fly-ins held October 17. The two events are tied together by the calendar, but more importantly through mutual participation (and a food incentive of course). This year has seen more cooperation among aviation organizations across the region, with new bonds formed and a new generation of youth experiencing aviation thanks to that teamwork. It was great to visit again with some old friends and make some new ones as well at these grass (runway) roots aviation events.

We began our Sunday morning with a visit to Sullivan Field in Valmeyer, IL, home of the Gateway Area Ultralight Association EAA Chapter 331 (GAUA). The GAUA has built a following of ultralight flyers since the 1980's, and in recent years became part of the EAA Chapter 331. Their annual fly-in began on Saturday and continued into Sunday, with a fly-out planned for the afternoon. We met with several members getting their ultralights, Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) and even Mike Merkan's RV-4 from the main hangar and ready to fly. A visiting Challenger 2 on floats joined the lineup for takeoff. Their destination, and ours: Flying Dutchman Airport in nearby Belleville, IL for their famous chili.

A short while later, we arrived at Flying Dutchman Airport where the chili was being devoured by the fly-in crowd. The ultralights and LSAs from Sullivan Field joined a wide variety of aircraft already on the grass outside of the main office building and flagpole, including EAA Chapter 64's Pietenpol Air Camper, the Schaefer's beautiful Cessna Bird Dog, rare Luscombe T-8F and MBB BO-105P aerobatic helicopter among others. After filling up with chili, and recalculating weight-and-balance, the fly-ins departed for their home airfields to enjoy the remainder of the warm fall day. 

The Aero Experience thanks all who organized and participated in these fall fly-ins and all of the other Midwest Aviation events that we covered and are still to come this year!