55th National Stearman Fly-In Draws 91 Aircraft to Galesburg

By Jay Salman

The 55th annual National Stearman Fly-In was held from September 7th through the 12th. As it has been from the start, this event was held at Harrel W. Timmons Galesburg Regional Airport (GBG), Illinois. Tye Hammerle, President of the Fly-in, explains, “The first Stearman fly-in was organized by Jim Leahy, a resident of Galesburg, and his friend Tom Lowe in 1972. The pair sent out invitations to more than 2000 Stearman owners for a get-together over Labor Day weekend. 27 Stearmans showed up, and it was deemed a success. So, they decided, well, we’ll try it again, and they kept doing it, and it grew from a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event to a full six days during Labor Day week. This year was our 55th year, so it’s been pretty successful.”

This year saw 91 Stearmans registered for the Fly-In. Hammerle notes, “There were another 22 members who arrived by other means: other planes, trains, or automobiles. That’s pretty significant, since it shows the dedication of our attendees who want to participate in the Fly-In even if they can’t fly their Stearmans to the event. We’ve had several years with over 100 Stearmans registered. I’d like to point out that this has always been a free event. There’s no charge to register; just show up.”

The Fly-In is steeped in tradition. Hammerle explains, “It’s kind of like a big family reunion, and we have quite a number of folks who’ve come for over 25 years. Even after they no longer fly Stearmans, many still continue to attend. We even have awards for the oldest and youngest pilots. Our oldest, or as we like to refer to them, ‘Most Vintage’ Stearman Pilot is Harry Ballance at 86, and the youngest is Thomas Preston at 21. Those two awards require the recipient to be PIC of the Stearman arriving at Galesburg. There’s always talk about everybody’s getting old in this community. And we’re not seeing any young people. Actually, I think we have a fair number of relatively young folks turning up in Stearmans. ‘Young’ is a relative term. Not teenagers or 20-somethings, but a good number of our attendees are under 50 years old, so I think we’re healthy in that respect.”

(Image credit: Jay Selman)

The National Stearman Fly-In traditionally features daily fly-outs to nearby airfields for those valued “$100 hamburgers.” These destinations include Tri-County Airport (2C6), Kewanee Municipal Airport (KEZI), Gen-Air Park (3G8), and Wolford’s Farm (IL01). There is a Poker Run contest that will take contestants on a scenic tour across the Illinois farmlands. Envelopes with cards are staged at GBG, Macomb (MQB), 2C6, EZI, 3G8, and IL01. The week also has a variety of presentations and contests, including flour bombing, spot landing, short field takeoff, formation, and aerobatics. The short-field takeoff, flour bombing and spot landing contest was held on Monday and Saturday to accommodate those pilots who cannot stay for the entire week. This was the first year to run the contest on two days and was considered successful. We had 8 contestants on Monday and 19 on Saturday.

Hammerle points out that there are three separate but related Stearman organizations in the US. Folks often think the Fly-In is an SRA event, but it is not. He says, “I’m the president of the National Stearman Fly-In, which is a nonprofit corporation whose sole purpose in life is to put on the Fly-In every year. Then you have the National Stearman Foundation, located at the Galesburg Municipal Airport (GBG), which built and maintains the Stearman hangar at Galesburg. Stuart Olmsted is the current president. The facility provides a permanent home for the National Stearman Fly-In as well as the National Stearman Foundation. The hangar facility serves as a year-round home to the world community of Stearman owners, pilots, enthusiasts, historians and future caretakers of this legendary aircraft. Finally, there is the Stearman Restorers Association (SRA), an independent 501(c)(3) Corporation dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and safe flying of Stearman aircraft worldwide through the education of both members and the public. The SRA is the Stearman Type Club. The SRA has over 1000 members in 25 countries. Brian Rosenstein is the president of the SRA.” Hammerle also notes that there’s some “cross-pollination” of personnel among these groups to facilitate accomplishment of the organization’s missions. “Brian is also a board member on the National Stearman Fly-In, and I am also the technical advisor and historian board member on the SRA.” The corporate by-laws of the Foundation require the President of the Fly-In to be a board member.

Awards

Lucky Buzzard Award

This award is given to individuals who have attended the National Stearman Fly-In for 25 years as Pilot in Command. These do not need to be consecutive.