Chili Fiesta 2009

Threatening weather may have held down the number of planes which flew in but once again the weather on the field was excellent - mostly sunny with comfortable temperatures.

A forecast of late afternoon thunderstorms (and dark clouds to the west) persuaded many to leave early, but while it tried once, it never actually managed to rain here. I estimate we had between 68 - 73 aircraft fly in (63 personally documented + unknown # uncounted). 27 aircraft (43%) were first time visitors - which is only slightly less than the norm of half, again a factor of the weather forecast.

Of special interest was the 1944 Beech D17S (Staggerwing) owned by John Desmond of Phila., PA & two new restorations: James Ripka's 1942 Stearman from Grasonville, MD & Bruce Barrett's 1941 Piper Cub from Pasadena, MD - all of which were outstanding!

John Warrington brought his new Sonex (which made it's first flight here at Massey last year) & Delbert Coller brought his brand new orange & black One Design - Experimental Aircraft were well represented.

Thomas Guthrie of Worton, MD brought his very fine 1941 MEYERS OTW-160. With only 102 built, 56 still registered and perhaps 25 flying - this is a rare plane that has survived in far greater numbers (percentage wise) than you would expect!

Wikipedia's entry is interesting: The Meyers OTW (Out To Win) was a 1930s United States training biplane designed by Allen Meyers and built by his Meyers Aircraft Company from 1936 to 1944.

There were two very nice Light-Sport aircraft on the field, a Glasair Sportsman GS-2 & a Tecnam P92 Eaglet (approx. $110,000, made in Italy).

It was good to see a Breezy (it's name says it all), what a contrast to the Cirrus SR20.

We had two Mooneys to dispel the myth that they can't land on grass fields due to low ground clearance.

Round engine fans enjoyed watching the Yak-50 and Sukhoi SU-31 perform (see pictures in the Photo Library set - "2009 Chili Visitors" and for the Yak look in the Set: "Activities, Friends & Visitors").

On display outside was a 1927 Ford model T one ton truck, a '67 Mustang & Don Sloan's 1972 Olds Cutlass convertible.

Inside was Bob Neeves' large diorama of the village, canal & bridge from the movie "Saving Private Ryan" depicting the battle (& destruction) in miniature. This was the most finely detailed "model" I have ever seen - rivaling the best professional museum displays. In addition, Bob brought superb scale models of a P-61 "Black Widow" and a B-24 "Liberator" depicting the bomber flown by Major Robert Bean in the Pacific complete with all the crew posed identically to an accompanying photo. Bob Neeves & his wife set up Saturday morning and stayed all day answering questions from many interested attendees. Bob Neeves is a long time friend of Major Bean (the Major flew his Stearman out of Massey until selling it to Col. Don Sloan). The Major is a good friend of Massey Aerodrome and we were all moved by Bob Neeves' tribute to his World War II service. Thank you for allowing everyone at the Chili Fest to see the meticulous attention to detail of your displays (photos can't do it justice, you have to see it in person).

There was good food as always and plenty of it, although I did hear a certain "chocoholic" complain of a shortage of her favorite dessert. Thanks to everyone who prepared and brought Chili & so much more.

Thanks to Rob Dant for the photo flight to get a birds eye view of the field.

Thanks for coming and don't forget to search the Photo Library for your plane if you flew in. Enter your N number (or model or owner's name) in the "Flickr" search box in the upper right corner.

(FYI: "cub" gets 63 results, "Stearman" gets 111 results, "Pitts" gets 18 results, "Piper" gets 152 results & "Cessna" gets 163.) If you scroll to the bottom of the page and there is no "NEXT" page button - try clicking the little blue "Flickr Photos" & if that doesn't work click the grey Slideshow button in the upper right corner (under the "Search' window).