Showers didn’t dampen spirits for hundreds of attendees
A few lingering showers didn’t keep pilots from Sporty’s 11th annual fly-in. Hundreds of attendees enjoyed a full static aircraft display, exhibits, seminars and introductory flights. Sporty’s promised a fly-in “rain or shine” and that’s exactly what happened.
The fly-in hosted the largest number of exhibitors ever. Seminars from Sporty’s, ForeFlight, and Garmin were near capacity. While fly in traffic was down, drive in traffic was up – and Sporty’s loyal customer-attendees enthusiastically consumed upwards of 700 free hot dogs. Lots of interest was shown in new aircraft on display which fly-in participants could examine up close.
“We had people flying in to Sporty’s the following day, on Sunday – of course, a clear, sunny day – just to visit and shop at our retail store,” says Sporty’s President Michael Wolf.
When informed by Wolf that he is the 2015 Sweepstakes winner, a stunned Okikawa laughed and replied, “This is kind of surreal,” and then added, “I’ll be pinching myself making sure I’m awake.”
Okikawa will travel to Batavia in the weeks ahead to claim ownership of his airplane. Sporty’s announced its next sweepstakes airplane will be a Legend Cub.
