Sentimental Journey begins at Piper Memorial Airport
LOCK HAVEN – Officials with the Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven are ready for the 35th edition of the annual fly-in to Piper Memorial Airport. Organization secretary Kim Garlick said some 350 planes are due in during the fly-in’s run from Tuesday through Saturday of this week. She said that number would be online with previous years, except for 2020 when COVID-19 forced the event’s cancellation.
Even with the pandemic a year ago, she noted, a couple dozen flyers visited the airport during the normal fly-in week. A highlight for the public this year, she said, is an air show featuring Greg Koontz from Alabama; his show, in a Piper Cub J-3, features the pilot landing his plane on a moving truck. That show will take place Tuesday through Thursday at 1 p.m. and 12 noon on Friday. Garlick said Sentimental Journey officials are elated the long layoff, due to COVID, is over.
For those who drive down Water Street to get to the fly-in, they’ll notice a longstanding visitor is back. Leslie Gaskill from Ottumwa, Iowa, has his Cub J-3 set up under two sweeping trees, located just off Water Street. Gaskill said this year’s visit is number 33 for him, having missed the fly-in in 1988 while in college and last year as the event was cancelled.
Gaskill said his plane is a 1946 model J-3 and returns each year to its birthplace to visit with general aviation friends. He said there were five in his group flying in from Iowa several decades ago, but he is the last to make the two-day trip to Cub Haven. An electrician by trade, he said he received his interest in flying from his father who was a pilot.
A complete schedule for Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven may be found on the organization’s facebook page.
