Mineral County Fly-in upcoming

Last week Members from the Mineral County Chamber of Commerce went before the county commissioners to ask for funding for the Mineral County Fly-in, planned for August 13.

Mary Jo Berry, among those lobbying for funding,  said that up to this point the chamber has been meeting with local pilots for about five months to regarding the fly-in. She said that they have letters that need to be sent out. They also have plans to print flyers and posters and mail them out as well. She said they are looking at sending them out to areas within 200 miles of the Mineral County Airport.

Berry said that local pilot Bob Ruthford has helped her greatly in locating places to send information to also. Berry also referred to a mock movie poster featuring an image of a plane flying over a field with the title The Lord of the Wings printed above it. “We are planning to use that as a basis for our smaller poster and flyers.”

Chamber president Robert Lyons expressed his feelings about the posters as well.

“This will draw a lot more attention,” he said. “When you see that Lord of the Wings, you have that reaction where you do a second take. This will help to promote the interest in this event.”

 Lyons also told the commissioners that the only income generated by the event will be from the pancake breakfast, sponsored by the Methodist men.

Clark Conrow asked if they had an accounting of what they would need and also expressed that whatever funds they received they would need to keep records of how and where they spend it. Berry said that in all they will be looking at using the money for posters, flyers, advertising, a banner and postage.

Judy Stang who has been working to help plan the event agreed with Conrow. She said that the committee that is working to plan the fly-in could get that information to the commissioners at a later date. It was eventually decided that the committee would return on April 29.

Berry said that the committee has been meeting with local pilots for about five months now. She said that they have received help from Randy Garrison, in Plains, who coordinates the Sanders County fly-in event. Local pilot Bob Ruthford has also been a great help in letting them know where the airports are within 200 miles that they might advertise the event.

Stang said that they have worked to select a date that wouldn’t overlap with any other fly-ins that are planned in Mineral County. She expressed that this will just be a beginning point for them.

The committee expects that the event will start around 8 a.m. and last into the afternoon until about 1 p.m. They said that they have no idea how many planes they will get, but are expecting somewhere between eight and twelve.

Lyons discussed that they also hope to maybe have the Forest Service bring in a helicopter if they can, have Life Flight on display and maybe some older, collector’s planes. He discussed possibly holding some contests for pilot. do a flower drop where they. He said that Ruthford has also offered to do airplane rides.

Stang said that they hope the event will become an annual thing and grow. Berry said that from what they can tell, people are excited.

“The pilots are excited, the chamber is excited,” she said. “Hopefully, we can make this an annual thing and hopefully, a lot of people will come out to check this out.”