Amish Country Fly-In ready to take flight
On Aug. 9-11 the Amish Country Fly-In will feature dozens of powered paragliders taking flight near Holmesville, with the public invited to bring their lawn chairs and blankets and watch this festival of flight at Second Creek.
Holmes and Wayne counties will have some unique air traffic coming soon, and the buzzing of dozens of paragliders should make for a fun event for the participants and those who would like to stop by Second Creek near Holmesville and take a gander at these flying machines.
On Aug. 9-11 the Amish Country Fly-In will feature dozens of powered paragliders taking flight to the heavens, with the public invited to bring their lawn chairs and blankets and watch this festival of flight.
The event is designed for paramotors only, with no PPCs allowed.
“We felt that PPCs were just a little too powerful, but regardless, it’s going to be a sight,” event organizer Joe Miller said.
The event should provide some fun viewing for those who want to come and watch these high-flying acts come and go.
“These guys get pretty high up in the sky, sometimes even above the clouds, and we invite everyone to stop by and check out the machines and talk to the owners about how much fun they have and how they operate them,” Miller said.
The entrance fee for those stopping by to watch and enjoy the atmosphere is $5 per person and gets them onto the grounds all day.
The group will set sail into the sky, and if the weather is good, people around Holmesville and even further into area communities can glance heavenward and see some of the members in flight, but the real fun will be centered around Second Creek, where they will provide food and plenty of area for viewers to throw down a blanket or a couple of lawn chairs to watch the action.
There will be food trucks at the event including Benton BBQ, Buster’s Pizza and Gourmet Sweets, which provides rolled ice cream.
“We will have pulled pork, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chili, nachos and cheese, and beverages, and we have plenty of room for the paragliders to take off and land, so it should be a very active event, and we invite anyone to come out and watch all of the action in our field,” Miller said. “We invite everyone to bring lawn chairs and blankets and watch this unusual event.”
He went on to describe what the day will look like, with paragliders taking off and landing all day long. He said the sky should be dotted with flight enthusiasts.
“We’ve got paragliders from all over Ohio and even some from Indiana and Pennsylvania already scheduled to participate,” Miller said.
He said they should have somewhere close to 40 paragliders zipping in and out of the landing area, especially in the morning and evening hours when paraglider activity will be at its heaviest.
During the afternoon there will be an added attraction, that being Jay’s Trains & Planes flying model planes when the paragliders aren’t up in the air.
Anyone with a remote-controlled plane is invited to come and join at that time, at a cost of $10.
“I think it should be a lot of fun for the community to stop by and watch,” Miller said. “When you see one in the sky, you can’t help but stop and watch it, so with a bunch of them in the sky, it should really be something unique. It’s fairly inexpensive entertainment, and we think it’s a really unique thing that people won’t often see. It’s a lot like the hot air balloon launch you’ll see in Canton.”
Saturday would be the ideal opportunity for families with children to stop by as a candy drop is scheduled to take place with candy raining down from the sky.