Delta Blues Fly in. Cleveland, Mississippi

The Delta Blues Fly-In had its start last year at the hands of organizer Eric Tatum. Last year's fly-in was held at Dorr field - a privately owned grass strip near Marigold, MS. Considering the soggy weather last year the fly-in was moved to the public airfield at Cleveland, MS home of Delta State University's flight department and Air Repair - a shop that specializes in Stearman restoration and maintenance.

And indeed the weather was bad. Winds gusting up to 40mph were present the day most of the North Little Rock "cluster flock" flew over and the next day brought severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes. Jennifer and I drove the 3 hours instead of trying to fly over and it's a good thing because hangers were in short supply.

Live blues at Crawdads in Merigold and then partying at Po' Monkey's Juke-Joint was on the agenda for Thursday night and then we figured we better go hold down the casinos through the bad weather on friday and friday night. The lads did well and we had a staggering seafood buffet.

Saturday's weather was incomparable. We quickly saddled up several airplanes including a T6 and 6 Stearmans along with a 172, Scout and a couple of Citabrias to head to Greenville for lunch. We were all itching to take advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather and the mass flight along the Mississippi River to a nostalgic aviation spot.

The rest of the afternoon was a lazy affair complete with a flour bombing competition and spot landing competition for the Stearmans and several rides given in various airplanes. Hanging out right off the taxiway up close to the action, the lack of necessity for gates, rules and security along with an abundance of camaraderie and great aircraft made for one of the best fly-ins I have been to in a long time. Cant wait for next year!