The Bancroft Flying Club is well known in eastern Ontario for their July fly-in breakfast followed at lunch with their BBQ. Folks fly-in from points afar in the region, including western Quebec, for a delicious meal, or meals, before heading home in early to mid afternoon.

Volunteers arrive early to help prepare the airport grounds and flying club for the day, making pancake batter, cooking pancakes & breakfast sausages, filling little cups of pure, Canadian maple syrup and preparing plates, napkins, cutlery and making coffee. From young and old, everyone steps in to make sure the day is a success.

This year saw the fly-in include local area vendors set up booths offering up anything from local maple syrup to assorted baked goods, knitting, woodworking and more as well as an Ontario turtle group called "Think Turtle Conservation Initiative" (thinkturtle.ca) dedicated to helping save turtles of Ontario. With pilots, crews and local area folks who drive in to support the fly-in, vendors have a great opportunity to make their products known and make a little money through the day.

As aircraft started to arrive, food was ready, volunteers were ready, and people were ready to eat. Though the weather wasn't great to start the day, with a thick layer of low cloud throughout much of the area, aircraft began arriving sometime after 9:00am and a slow, steady flow continued throughout the morning. Unfortunately, the weather did put some people off and numbers were lower than is typical.

The Mooney M20 was designed and manufactured by the Mooney International Corporation and first flew in 1953. It is a 4-seat aircraft with retractable landing gear. Early models operated with a 150hp engine with 180hp engine being fitted to later models and, eventually, a version with a turbo charged engine that saw it achieve speeds in excess of 200mph in the late 1970s. Though the design changed hands, in the 1980s, the M20K was built with a 210hp engine offering speeds in excess of 252mph. Further developments didn't help with production and sales fell through the years. In November of 2019 the company laid off all employees for about a month until production started up again in December though production has since been discontinued but more than 11,000 of the type were built.

There are several aircraft based on the field at Bancroft, some hangared and pulled out for the day and some that are tied down. This highly polished CH601 has been beautifully built and finished to a high polish, a task that requires constant attention. As well as the 601 there were a couple of different Cessna aircraft, an RV-6 and other aircraft. Unfortunately, though there's a flying club, they do not offer instruction on the field but that's something club president, Lynn Davis hopes to remedy in the future.

The Zenair CH701 is a design from Canadian Chris Heintz with production at his Midland, Ontario facitlity. It was designed as a STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) aircraft and first flew in 1986. It is an all metal aircraft with a high-lift wing with leading edge slats, flaperons, an all flying rudder and can be flown with conventional landing gear or amphibious floats. They have been built with the Rotax 582, 2 stroke engine, Rotax 912UL/ULS or the Jibaru 2200 engine with some even having been built with a JLT Motors Ecoyota and even a 4 cylinder Continental. In Canada, they can be operated, depending on version, as a BULA (Basic Ultralight), AULA (Advanced Ultralight) or aircraft and in the US as a Light Sport or Experimental aircraft. Depending on the version the aircraft has a cruise speed of 80mph, stall speed of 30mph, a range of 372 miles and a service ceiling of 12,000 feet.

The Bancroft Fire Department was also on hand, displaying some of their equipment and members offering their time to talk to young and old alike. It's all part of the community spirit that is very apparent at the Bancroft Flying Club Fly-in. Between the FD, the fly-in volunteers and the vendors that came to the fly-in, everyone worked hard to make the fly-in a great success, year after year.

Aeronca Aircraft first flew their Model 7 Champion, or "Champ," also known then as the "Airknocker," in 1944 with the aircraft being introduced to the market in November of 1945. It was designed to be a competitor to the very popular Piper Cub though the Champ was piloted from the front seat, giving the pilot better visibility on take off, climb and landing verses what the rear seat pilot had in the Piper Cub. Variants included the 7AC, 7CCM, 7DC and 7EC which were all capable of float operations (S7AC, S7CCM, S7DC and S7EC). A version was also operated by the US Army known as the L-16, L-16A and L-16B. The design passed through different companies including Champion Aircraft, Bellanca Aircraft and American Champion Aircraft Corporation. Depending on the variant, cruise speed is 95mph, stall speed is 38mph, a range of 270 miles and a service ceiling of 12,500 feet.

Aircraft visited from other airports such as Oak Hills Flying Club in Stirling, Baldwin, Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes/Lindsay, Brampton and Balsam Lake, among other locations. The flight to Bancroft is made over some of the most beautiful areas of Ontario, often referred to as "cottage country," embossed with thousands of lakes and rivers, much of it the Canadian Shield.

This week we had a look at some of the visiting aircraft that attended the Bancroft Flying Club 2024 fly-in breakfast and BBQ lunch. Next week we'll return to Bancroft with a look at more visiting aircraft, some information about the Bancroft area and more.