Memories of the 2025 Sentimental Journey
By Sharon Hoy
The best theme for the 2025 Sentimental Journey would be taken from the English nursery rhyme “Rain, rain go away, Come again another day.” And it did come again another day- on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday and yet again on Thursday!
Ten days before the event, I checked the Lock Haven weather forecast and it said rain every day. The forecast is ever changing so being an optimist, I felt it would change by the time SJ came. We traveled from Connecticut where we live to Lock Haven on Monday, June 16, with intermittent rain showers. When we arrived, the visibility was not good and certainly not ideal conditions for Piper cubs to be flying between the mountains. Before going to the hotel, we drove over to the airport. I predicted that there would be 6 or less airplanes on the field. Hmmm! I guess I was a bit optimistic. There were only two lonely airplanes on the whole field. But despite only two airplanes, there was a nice crowd at the pavilion for the Monday evening pig roast. Tuesday brought more downpours and so much rain that people were getting their cars stuck in the mud.
This year’s Short Wing Piper Convention was being held in Lock Haven. But what a determined group of people they were! If you can’t fly, what do you do? Drive and that’s what they did. It was pretty impressive. They continued to arrive through Wednesday even when a wild thunderstorm went through with more to follow. Since the weather prevented a “flying” poker run, they planned to have a “driving” poker run. But with only four registrants, that ended up being cancelled as well. The number of people who actually flew in on the last day was amazing resulting in a huge “family” reunion. Despite the weather, they had a field display of a total of 14 short wings. We were delighted to host their convention and hope they will give us another chance and will come back again soon. We’ll do our very best to arrange better weather next time!
On Thursday, SJ hosted a trip to Lycoming Engines in Williamsport for a tour of their plant. That evening, the Lindy Sisters performed at the pavilion. With improving weather on Friday, there was a Spot Landing Contest and a Youth Aviation Career Day, followed by the banquet that night, where the following awards were presented: Best J3 Cub – N98281 1946J3C-65, Frederick Sport Flyers – Jon Shimer, Jr.; Best Short Wing Piper – N3328A 1953 PA-22-135, David Tulis, Frederick, MD; Best Modified Short Wing Piper – N3429Z 1960 PA-22/20 Dwayne Waters, Merritt Island, FL; Best Modified Long Wing Piper – NC33403 1940 J-5A, Philip Pecoulas, Lebanon, NJ; Best Classic – N933GM 1960 Beechcraft G18S, Jonathan Martin, West Grove, PA; and Best Military– N75004 1942 Vultee BT-15, Eric Lunger.
This was the last Sentimental Journey where Cal Arter, served as President, and John Buchan, as Fly-In Director. We thank both of them for their commitment, dedication and long hours of planning to make these yearly events so successful. Both will continue to serve as board directors and we look forward to having them on the board for many years to come. Kim Garlick has also decided that this would be her last year to organize Sentimental Journey. She will still be a part of it but in a different capacity and we thank her for all she’s done to make the events so successful.
There was one good thing coming out of a week of rainy weather! It provided us with a great opportunity to have more people tour our museum and take advantage of the many new displays as well as to see first-hand the most recent addition, the Piper Jet which just arrived a few weeks before. Roger Peperell, the Piper Aircraft company historian, and a Piper Board Director, joined the group at the banquet and gave a great presentation on the Piper jet, followed by a Q and A session. Great job Roger. Thanks for a job well done!
We had a great turnout for the Young Eagles Flight on Friday and Saturday. We had five airplanes participating and flew a total of 94 Young Eagles, some who had never flown or even been near an airplane. We hope this may have created a desire in some to become future pilots. Thanks to the pilots Mike Jones, Randy Kilmer, Tom Houseknecht, Bob Grove and John Ricciotti for completing these flights.
So to conclude, you can rain on our parade but you can’t keep us from having a great time, resulting in a successful Sentimental Journey and Short Wing Piper Convention.
