Recreation: Flying In

• Share

They have started to swarm again-whistling down softly upon their familiar feeding grounds, buzzing into the air on their brightly colored wings, performing the ritual flights peculiar to the species, communicating in a mysterious language. In short, the fly-in season has begun, and it will be the biggest ever.

Technology & Cotton Candy. Fly-ins are the gregarious side of private flying. A fly-in may be a bunch of well-heeled bank managers, admen, lawyers and the like, assembling for a weekend on Blakely Island, the de luxe air marina just off the northwest coast of Washington. It may be an informal handful of farmers and construction men setting down by a lakeside for a Sunday cookout. Or it may be a highly organized annual institution, with hundreds of planes zooming in for an elaborate program of exhibits and special events.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, for instance, there were no fewer than four fly-ins. Near Elmira, N.Y., the second annual Southern Tier Air Fair drew 172 private planes and some 2,500 visitors to the Chemung County Airport, despite a bad weather forecast. The atmosphere at Elmira was a pure American blend of up-to-the-minute technology and old-fashioned county fair. Outside were refreshment stands, a chicken barbecue, cotton candy and a sound-truckload of continuous music; inside a large hangar were displays of the latest aeronautical equipment. The door prizes were free glider rides, and there was an afternoon "air parade" of the latest models of private planes. But the most important part was the shop talk and socializing. Said Mrs. Betty Haesloop of Elmira: "Flying certainly has changed my life. You meet such a nice crowd." Echoed her 18-year-old daughter Linda: "The people you meet on flying trips are so friendly!"

In Reedsburg, Wis., the 12th annual Fly-In Drive-In brought 69 planes from Wisconsin and Illinois. The HamiltonMount Hope Airport in Ontario was the gathering place for the third annual fly-in of the local branch of the Experimental Aircraft Association-some 15,000 people (in 15 countries) who like to build, or rebuild, their own planes. Economy is, of course, one attraction for the do-it-yourselfers; a two-place plane can be built for about $2,-500 (plus 1,500 hours or so), compared with some $5,500 and up for a factory-built plane. But the main appeal is the fun of the building. For some, such as Stan Johnson, building is all. "Been making planes all my life," he explains, "but I've never flown one."

Red-hot craze among the air amateurs is antique aircraft (pre-Pearl Harbor). At the Merced Municipal Airport in central California, 1,500 aircraft turned up for Merced's sixth annual Antique Fly-In. "That's the kind of plane we should get next," said a woman to her husband, indicating a blue, open-cockpit Stearman PT-17 trainer some 20-odd years old. "Everything these days has two engines, five radios and windshield wipers," complained Pete Bowers, 45, an engineer for Boeing. "That's fine for traveling, but not for flying." Then he climbed into his 1912 Bullock-Curtis tri-wing pusher, bounced off the runway at 35 m.p.h., churned over the field doing at least 50, landed and stopped in about 35 ft.