WAYNE – Come next week, hundreds of planes will be visiting a northeast Nebraska community and the Wayne Airport is going to be the place to be.
Travis Meyer is the chairman of the Wayne Airport Authority and Scott Hammer is a member of the board as both are co-chairs of MayDay STOL Drag taking place Wednesday, April 28 – Saturday, Mary 1 in northeast Nebraska.
Parking will be extremely limited at KLCG (Wayne Municipal Airport/Stan Morris Field), according to co-chair Scott Hammer.
“We’re reserving the airport for airplanes,” said Hammer. “We anticipate, weather permitting, 300 – 500 airplanes could be arriving and they’ll be parking all over in the grass fields out and around north of the runways. So, in light of that, we don’t have any vehicle parking at the airport premises short of there’ll be some limited ADA spaces.”
For the drive-in public, busses will stop by the fairgrounds (#1 stop), Journey Christian Church (second stop) and the Softball Complex (last resort). Shuttles will run from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, 6 a.m. – 11 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. until midnight on Saturday. The shuttle can also drop off people downtown at the Carhart parking lot.
Also, make sure to bring your bag chairs to save your spot as food vendors will be on site.
STOL (short take-off and landing) was started by Kevin Quinn and the Flying Cowboys as well as other back country pilots.
Traditional STOL competition is a combined measurement of how short of an area you need to take off added to how short of an area you need to land. Each competitor will get three patterns.
A Traditional STOL Practice is scheduled for Friday, April 30 between 5 – 7 p.m. with the competition taking place on Saturday, May 1 from 1 – 3 p.m.
Wednesday (3 – 6 p.m.) and Thursday (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) will feature STOL Drag trials while Friday (5 – 8 p.m.) and Saturday (9 a.m. – noon/4 – 8 p.m.) will be STOL races and drag finals Saturday evening. STOL Drag normally puts airplanes side-by-side one a 150’ wide runaway. They’ll take-off racing to one end, stop, turn around and race back as the first airplane that comes to a complete stop across the line is the winner.
There’ll also be live entertainment next weekend. Friday night music will be provided by Tegan Nissen around the fire pit at 9 p.m. (airport). Eckophonic out of Omaha, a wide-ranging cover band, will then perform on Saturday at the airport starting at 8 p.m. with awards being announced between band breaks.
During your time at the airport, Hammer invites you to go around and talk to the pilots and aviators.
“They all like to talk about aviation,” Hammer mentioned. “Ask them about their airplane, ask them where they’re from…Look but don’t touch. It’s entirely possible to invite you to climb up and sit in it, but wait for them to offer.”
Visit maydaystol.com for complete details including costs for single or multi-day tickets you can purchase online.
Hear the complete interview with Hammer on the “View from Wayne America” on Thursday, April 22. The interview will air just after 9 a.m. on Big Red Country ‘KTCH’ 104.9 and just after 6 p.m. on The City ‘KCTY’ 98.9/1590 as well as online at waynedailynews.com.