MANITOULIN EAST—Airplane buffs are in for a treat this week as 30 planes from across the province and the US are due to drop in for a visit at the Manitoulin East Municipal Airport on Thursday.
“There are going to be quite a few airplanes here,” admitted airport manager George Dobbs. “If you like to see planes, this should be the place.” A number of the planes coming in will be ‘homebuilt’ models, along with a few planes coming in from the US border states.
The planes should begin to arrive shortly after 10 am. “That is when the organizers are due to arrive to set things up,” said Mr. Dobbs. “We are hoping to have everyone in by 4 pm on Thursday.”
At 4 pm, a bus will take the pilots to the new Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre.
[pullquote]“They should pretty much fill that place up,” laughed Mr. Dobbs. “The pilots will be booking at least 30 rooms, I would think.”[/pullquote]
The fly-in (stretching the term slightly) is part of the Experimental Aircraft Association Timmins (Chapter 1126) Northern Ontario Interprovincial Air Tour that will see the flotilla visit six airports across Northern Ontario and Quebec.
“We will throw on some hot dogs and we have some T-shirts and hats here to greet them,” said Mr. Dobbs. But there are challenges that accompany hosting that many planes at once. “We pretty much have used up all of our tie-downs,” he said.
The fly-in is quite a boon to the airport, with significant fuel sales helping out the bottom line. “It was a good year last year,” said Mr. Dobbs. “This past month has been fantastic.”
The arrival of a number of patients evacuated from flooded James Bay communities earlier this year brought significant fuel sales. These were seniors in need of care who were to be the guests of the Wikwemikong Nursing Home.
[pullquote]“I got a call asking ‘do you have the fuel?’” recalled Mr. Dobbs. “They pretty much drank us dry in the fuel department. It was a pretty exciting night.”[/pullquote]
The medical transports, largely long-bodied Merlins, “skinny things” mused Mr. Dobbs, came flying in out of the dark bearing patients on stretchers, none of whom were ambulatory by themselves. “They really kept us running, but everything went very smoothly.” The morning was not quite as hectic. “They kind of dribbled out.”
The airport will be very busy on Thursday with the 30 planes landing through the afternoon for the fly-in, but Friday could be absolute bedlam without some serious scheduling efforts, noted Mr. Dobbs. “Everybody will be anxious to get on his or her way,” he said. “We will be able to handle it.”
The next busy day for the Manitoulin East Airport will be July 12, when the annual Young Eagles program comes calling. “We are planning to start around 9 am and hope to have the first flight up shortly after that,” said Mr. Dobbs.
The Young Eagles program, also an EAA initiative, seeks to interest youth in aviation by taking them up for rides in small planes and answering their questions about aviation careers and just flying in general. The pilots who volunteer for the program are passionate about flying and they hope to pass on that passion to the next generation.
“Let them see what it is really like to fly a plane, rather than sit in the basement staring at a computer monitor,” said Mr. Dobbs.
