Huge Success at the Macomb Airport Breakfast & Jerry Winters Memorial Fly-In
MACOMB – This weekend saw a huge turn out as hundreds of people attended the delicious tradition during the annual Jerry Winters Memorial Fly-in and Pancake Breakfast at the Macomb Municipal Airport located one mile east on US Route 67.
Elvin Hodges of the Colchester Lion’s Club said the annual tradition was passed to them by the Kiwanis club and has been operating the Sunday brunch continuously now for some 17 years as part of the Macomb Heritage Days Festival. What makes this year’s annual event truly unique is the FFA-approved fly-in offering airplane rides to those lucky area residents who are able to present coupons for one free ride in an airplane with a tour of the verdant flatlands. The event is normally an open house.
For many people, the Macomb Heritage Days festival has become something of a homecoming event, using the pancake breakfast as an opportunity for people to meet locally, and to further expand the meet-up opportunity with a fly-in for area pilots or pilots from further away.
The fly-in offered helicopter rides, as well as an antique tractor show, along with the arrival of an Aero L-39 Albatros jet produced by Aero Vodochody in the Czech Republic.
Setup for the event began early Thursday morning, with members of the Colchester Lion’s Cub moving tables and chairs and cooking stations into an open hangar where families, children and enthusiasts sat in community for breakfast while several shifts of ladies from Altrusa International of Macomb served in the food line and at the tables.
“We exchange labor, so that when Altrusa has their bazaar in the fall. We have carts and stuff, and we move all the vendors in, get them setup. Altrusia has scholarships at the hospital, and so we kick in some money for that,” Hodges said.
Directing traffic, selling cold water and helping people to meet up on a humid summer day were members of the Boy Scout Troops 315, chartered by the Rotary Club of Macomb.
Joshua Selman, a Boy Scouts Troop 315 member and a confirmed airplane enthusiast, spoke admiringly of the U.S. Navy 116 airplane which was parked on the edge of the green space near tractor show.
When asked what drew his attention to the U.S. Navy 116 in particular, Selman said that he plays an online war-game on his computer, and driven internally by his enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge, Selman began to research the history of the plane because he enjoys stories about the second world war.
“This has been my favorite plane to learn about,” Selman said, and that is what the Jerry Winters Memorial Fly-in was all about at the Macomb Municipal Airport.
Check out all the Heritage Days photos on our website www. communitynewsmarket.com/
The US Navy 116 is pictured above.
An antique tractor show was held along with the fly-in.
