We have announced the 5th All Bellanca Fly In at Bartlesville (KBVO) for the week of September 21th thru the 25th, 2022. We are looking to welcome Vikings/Super Vikings/14-19-2/3s, 14-13s, 260s, Decathlons/Citabrias, Triple Tails, Cruisaire/Cruise Master. Please register with the RSVP function below.
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The dates were moved one week to attempt to gain cooler weather here in Green Country.
Some good news. We were able to once again obtain the $89 hotel room rate, same as previous years, including a hot breakfast.
We were able to get the Garden Inn to allow for twice as many rooms on Weds(15 up from 7) and the same 50 rooms for remaining nights.
Check in reservations was improved to one week before the event where in the past it has been 2 weeks before. The last day to book at our rate is September 14, 2022.
The new link for the Garden Inn:
https://www.hilton.com/en/book/reservation/deeplink/?ctyhocn=BTVGIGI&groupCode=FLI&arrivaldate=2022-09-21&departuredate=2022-09-25&cid=OM,WW,HILTONLINK,EN,DirectLink&fromId=HILTONLINKDIRECT
The plans for the meals are as follows:
WED the 21st Hideaway Pizza One block from the hotel.
THURS the 22nd Spaghetti @ the Hangar
FRI the 23rd Hamburgers and hot dogs, cooked and served by the guys @ the Hangar
SAT the 24th Pulled pork and chicken @ the Hangar
All plans are subject to change if need be. Special dietary requests can be made.
With the installation of the Bellanca Factory in Sulphur, Oklahoma, plans are being made to have a fly-out on Friday morning for those who would like a tour of the new facility. Sandwich makings can be sent along so that no one will go hungry if they decide to take the tour. Any speakers that we have will be moved to Saturday after the public day is over. We are setting aside one of those sessions for any discussions about the factory that will be presented. Public day on Saturday will go back to being held between 10am and 2pm, unless the Bartlesville Lions again decide to hold their pancake breakfast on that Saturday.
Since COVID SEEMS TO BE UNDER CONTROL AT THIS TIME, WE HAVE DECIDED TO MAKE sATURDAY NITE DINNER OUT AT ONE OF THE LOCAL ESTABLISMENTS. The local New Osage Casino andHotel could become one of those possibilities. But the opening date has not been set.
Also the city gave me this info you may find usefull if you come in after hours.
From the city of BVO:
We just wanted to inform all of our local tenants that we now have after-hours access to our FBO lounge and restrooms for all pilots if needed! New electronic door keypads have been installed and the code to enter is 12282#. Please feel free to share with any friends or family that may be flying in to BVO needing after-hours access!
Thank You!
Bartlesville Aviation
If you find that you need to cancel your registration, then you can go back to the original registration link. Put in the e-mail address that you registered with, and at the top by your name is the wording “your answer”. When you register, it automatically says “yes”. But when you have to let us know you are cancelling, then select the “no” option and hit submit. That will let us know that you are cancelling.
We really appreciate it when you let us know that you are unable to attend since everything we plan on, is based on the number/name of folks who register.
Updates:
Saturday nite dinner will be at Dinks BBV. We will head that way around 6 PM
Friday at 3 PM Dave Paquele will give a walk around and inspection of the Viking
Saturday at 3 PM in the Hotel 5th floor loung we will have Bob Ferguson from AutoPilots Central of Tulsa open up for Q&A mostly during that session
Hotels for those of you who have not booked
As for hotel rooms we have now gone past the early booking time period which means you have missed the good room deal. I will call the Hilton to see if we can twist their arm for a few more days. I’ll let you know. But I do know that all other rooms besides our block of 50 rooms has been sold out. Try the hotel link given at the top of this blog. It may still work and honor the room rate deal. The only other option we have is the Phillips Hotel which has agreed to give us the $89 rate. They just have no breakfast to offer. They can be found on Air B&B. The number to the hotel itself is 918-336-5800. They can be difficult to get a hold of. Not sure about their method of getting through. Seems very cumbersome. We can help with that if you are trying to get a room there. The Phillips hotel has a lot of history in town. It was purchased and restored recently by a former Viking owner. The rooms are fantastic I must admit!
Recap of this years Fly-In
This year was greeted with excellent weather here in Green Country. The weather in other areas made it difficult coming through the Az monsoons season with systems extending from the west all the way across the nation.
Many of the owners, including our early regular arrivals, were only able to attend for the day on Friday and/or Saturday.
Overall we had over 40 owners come in, although 5 had to drive in due to scheduled maintenance being performed on their aircraft. We had at least 35 Vikings and Cruisemasters that did arrive, but the most airplanes we had on the ground at any time, was around 27 . We were glad to welcome many new owners coming in for the first time, as well as representatives from the new Bellanca factory now located in Sulfur, Oklahoma. One Viking went on to the facility in Sulfur Ok for an annual inspection.
The Bellanca Aircraft Co of Ok, “The Factory”, sponsored us this year. This is our first commercial sponsor!. Our biggest sponsors are, however. each and every one of you that continue to arrive and make generous donations to offset the expenses we incur to organize and work our annual get together. We thank everyone including the Factory for your generosity!
We were able to operate our drone again for the 3rd year under our UAS license as approved by the FAA. We file a notam each year during the actual days of the Fly-In as required. Pictures will be posted on our company website for viewing, as in previous years.
Wednesday nite we all walked over to the Hideaway Pizza parlor, a nice local establishment, for supper. We had a small crowd as mentioned due to wx.
Thursday and Friday, we dined at the hangar with meals prepared by the hosting family, the Dunbars. under beautiful sky conditions We started cooking at the hangar during the COVID years since we were not able to dine out at the restaurants. It has paid off as we are not aware of anyone that came down with sickness these last 3 years. Saturday we went to Dinks BBQ for some good smoky food.
The Bartlesville Lions Club was on location Saturday during the public day, cooking some food for the public also. This is usually a good fund raiser for their club. Have not been given a report on their sales for Saturday. The tables and chairs that are used for this event were rented from them, also.
We did have a Bartlesville City council person come out on our Saturday public day, along with a good crowd of locals. She represents the Ward that includes the airport and the neighborhood where I grew up, went to High School and learned to fly. She is very much an aviation friendly person. She said now that the City has taken over operations of the airport, since before last years Fly-In, that the city is looking at expanding facilities at the BVO airport. This would include a restaurant, which BVO has never had, some more hangar space and such. Bartlesville has a vision to attract cross country business travel and to locate new business adjacent to the airport. The city is developing an adjacent business park that was a city golf course previously.
There is talk around the airport that there is interest in bringing back the former Tulsa Airshow and the Antique Bi-Plane Association Airshow. These events used to bring in well over 550 aircraft on a Saturday. It is a weekend event for them. This would be a combination of the two to become the BVO Airshow. I have been in discussions with other parties to revive these next year in Sept. I was asked if we would like to do this in conjunction with the Bellanca Fly-In. If so, I was asked what weekend and if I would like to be on that committee, I said “yes”, we would try it for a year and see how it works out.
Overall I can see that our All Bellanca Fly-In is gaining in popularity. New young owners are finding our aircraft, and we know that we like our planes. We need to be getting the word out to the triple tail owners. Just signed up for the Triple Tail Bellancas on Facebook, and will be posting the next fly-in information on that site, as well as the other Bellanca groups that we already frequent. Next year will be a larger attendance when all of the regulars are able to make it back along with more new owners.
We had a very fun and successfull event once again. Our hotel position with the Garden Inn has already been secured for 2023,
Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Looking forward to next year.
Stephen & Janet Dunbar
vikingok
All Bellanca Fly-In host