Fly-in festival set for Suwannee County Airport starting Friday.
LIVE OAK — If the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 797 has its way, interest in an aviation career will take off this weekend at the Suwannee County Airport.
The Wings over Suwannee fly-in festival returns to the airport after covid-19 canceled last year’s event. The event starts Friday with an educational kids day from 9 a.m. until noon, with a corn roast and bonfire following that evening.
The festival, with vendors and airplane displays, will then land Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We’re excited,” said Allen Rice, founder and one of the organizers of the festival.
The free education day is open to all middle and high school students and includes six aviation-related learning stations. Rice said each station will consist of about 25 minutes of instruction before switching to the next.
Among the subjects are airport design, in which students will be shuttled around the airport to learn about different aspects, including the lights and wind sock.
Students will also learn how an airplane flies, potential careers in both civil and military aviation as well as aircraft robotics.
“It’s a neat little event,” Rice said.
One of the favorite stops, though, is the rocketry learning station where students make their own rockets and get to launch them.
“We have these rocket launchers and they get to launch them, they all enjoy that,” he added.
That evening will feature a corn roast at 6:30 p.m. and a bonfire as well as a pickin’ and grinnin’ session around the bonfire, featuring a number of bluegrass musicians.
That leads into the full-fledged festival Saturday that has 34 vendors and organizations signed up to participate, Rice said. In addition to those vendors and booths, the LifeSouth blood mobile will be on site taking blood donations and a post of pilots will be flying in to the airport to showcase their rides.
With such a busy day Saturday, Rice said the Young Eagles program will be registering interested children, ages 7-17, at the event, but the free flights will take place another day.
“The guys will all come flying in with their airplanes,” he added. “They’ll be showing them off.
“It’s too busy with too many airplanes coming in and out.”