Team Hopes To Move In By End Of Summer

Rain showers threatened to put a damper on the EAA's 11th annual Pancake Fly-In at Mid-Way Regional Airport this weekend... but the skies cleared just in time to host a few hundred eager (and hungry) guests and fliers, as well as a groundbreaking ceremony for a group of "Phlyers."

Though currently based at Hicks Airfield north of Fort Worth, TX, the Trojan Phlyers T-28B aerobatic team hopes to move to its new facility at KJWY -- located south of the DFW metroplex, halfway between the towns of Waxahachie and Midlothian -- by summer's end. Flanked by community leaders, including the mayors pro-tem from both towns, the team formally broke ground on its new hangar at 11 am.

Chip Lamb, Event Coordinator and demo pilot for the team, told ANN Saturday the team's impending move came about due to the loss of Phlyers founder and storied test pilot Neil Anderson, who passed away last September.

"He was the owner of the hangar where we keep our aircraft now," Lamb (above, left) explained. "Not only did we lose a partner, we lost our landlord as well... so in an attempt to be proactive, we went around the North Texas area looking for some hangar space. The financial aspects of it, the location, and the training facilities wound up taking us to Mid-Way Regional."

One of the team's T-28Bs was on static display during the morning fly-in, drawing a steady stream of curious onlookers... many of them marveling at the size of the post-World-War-II training aircraft. Team president and pilot Frank Adams then treated the crowd to an impressive display of the aircraft's capabilities, performing a series of high speed passes over the runway, as well as a few aileron rolls and loops.

If the crowd's reaction to that display is any indication, the team's move could also draw attention to Mid-Way Regional, a small airfield sporting a 5000-foot asphalt runway (plans are underway to expand that to 6,500') currently unencumbered by urban encroachment.

Airport coordinator Tammy Bowen told the Waxahachie Daily Light one purpose of the annual breakfast is so the local community may see what the airport has to offer. "We usually have from 50 to 60 planes that fly in," said Bowen. "We do this to help alert people in the state that we are able to meet their needs."

And, of course, there's nothing quite like the sight and sound of three R-1820-powered, barrel-shaped aircraft to lure the curious to the field, either...

FMI: www.trojanphlyers.com, www.mid-wayregional.com/