EAA Chapter 1658 will host its 2024 fly-in/drive-in event on Aug. 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Vernon F. Perschau Field at Glencoe Municipal Airport. The event will feature a raffle for free air travel and a vintage car and tractor show. The event costs $15 for adults, $12 for children under 12 and is free for children under three. Bratwurst, hot dogs, corn on the cob, chips, biscuits and sauerkraut will be served at the event. Event coordinator Jim Andrews said the event will take place “whatever the weather.”
“I think the main attraction is the planes themselves. On a good day, over a hundred planes come to this event. They’re parked under the grass and you can go out and look at them. And depending on the pilot, they might let children sit in them or they might tell you about their plane,” Andrews said.
Andrews said the annual event is a “major fundraiser” for the chapter and plays a “huge part” of its annual budget. “We appreciate the people who participate, we appreciate their support, it makes a huge difference in what we can do,” Andrews said.
Andrews said there will be a separate “Young Eagle Flights” activity in the mornings from 8 to 10:30 a.m., where children between the ages of 8 and 18 will receive free flights. He said the group hosts five Young Eagle Flights events a year and typically attracts between “40 and 60” children per session. “That’s a big part of our mission to get kids excited about flying, and the money we raise from flying helps us cover some of those group expenses and maintain our group, which is a growing and active group,” Andrews said. He said the group meets every Saturday for doughnuts and coffee, where they talk about airplanes and “tell tall stories.”
Andrews said the airfield draws visitors year-round and that it’s not uncommon for chapter members to use the airport to fly to pancake breakfasts across the state. “That’s part of the fun, it gives you an excuse to fly somewhere, and that’s what most of us need,” Andrews said.
“We want the community to see that this airfield has value, that there is a reason to have it,” Andrews said. “Some towns support their airfields much less than others, and we feel like we support them quite a bit and that by doing so we bring people, visitors and money to this community.”
He said the flying activity today has “an ageing clientele” and that there was a need to get younger people more involved. “I love taking kids and seeing them get excited about flying because I think that’s really cool. Maybe they can’t afford their own plane but they can afford to fly in one. We fly them along, we’ve done that many times so it’s fun for us,” Andrews said. He said the hobby of flying is a commitment that takes “time and money” and involves a “pretty long process” to become a private pilot. “You can start lessons at a very young age and take the pilot exam at 16, at 16 you could potentially have the same responsibility of flying a plane as an adult and I think that’s a tremendous opportunity for a child’s maturity and leadership skills,” Andrews said. “I know kids who did it at 16 and I don’t think any of those kids turned out bad, it’s a great opportunity. I think that aviation in general should be more widely included in the school curriculum and I think that a lot of things from physics and the natural sciences can be transferred to aviation.”
Glencoe Municipal Airport opened a new airport terminal building at Vernon Perschau Field on June 7 with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by the mayor, city council, city administration and state political officials.
