The annual Chili-Fest Fly-In at Massey Airport Maryland MD1 was the best ever today, and attracted ~100 aircraft (my count). The grass-strip limits the type of aircraft and pilots but the turnout today was about double last year.

The weather for our brief flight south in the two-seater Citabria N76ML was ‘iffy’, with low ceilings and threatening showers. But non developed and indeed the grass-strip was dry and just fine. My buddy Harv and I touched down about 11.30.
The choice of chili’s equaled the variety of aircraft. Pots of various strengths, heat-levels and contents were provided by volunteers and aviators, with hot-dogs on-hand for the faint-of-heart. Food lines lengthened at various points as waves of aircraft and hungry pilots descended from the Maryland skies.

‘Hangar flying’ broke-out, with aviators exchanging stories, experiences and the best places for cheap(er) aviation fuel.

The flightline included every variety of tail-dragger, sports and production aircraft, impressively filling every vacant spot on Jim Douglas’s airport. The airport is a ‘grassroots-aviation’ and museum spot, with several projects underway to keep antique aircraft flying.

Harv flew us back to New Garden, but not until he’d experienced some aerobatics courtesy of Roger and his Stearman.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Aviation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.