Held annually for the last seven-years at Indiana’s Goshen Municipal Airport (GSH), Rotors ‘n Ribs is an eponymously-accurate event comprising an aggregation of helicopters, helicopter pilots, first-rate barbecue ribs, and a slew of family-friendly, rotary-wing-themed attractions.
“It’s been so successful that it has become one of the largest helicopter-only fly-ins in the country. It has gained national recognition in the helicopter industry” stated Goshen Municipal Airport manager and longtime helicopter pilot Randy Sharkey, who founded Rotors ‘n Ribs as an alternative to a full-fledged airshow.
The enthusiasm with which Rotors ‘n Ribs has been met by the helicopter community comes as something of a surprise to Mr. Sharkey, who asserted he never thought an event staged in a small Indiana town, such as Goshen, would prove as perennially successful as his helicopter and hog hootenanny has.
2023’s Rotors ‘n Ribs was held on 07 July and saw attending pilots attempt to set a world-record for the largest number of helicopters hovering contemporaneously at one location. Though such a world-record doesn’t, in point of fact, exist, Mr. Sharkey has communicated with the records adjudicators at Guinness who’ve averred they’ll create an apposite category should he provide them video of a sufficiently compelling spectacle.
Whether or not Mr. Sharkey and his fellow helicopter pilots succeeded in their world-record attempt remains to be seen. Time, as ever, will tell.
The Rotors ‘n Ribs celebration is open to helicopter pilots, owners, and enthusiasts. The gathering is free to attend for those arriving by helicopter. Attendees arriving by car, however, are charged a $20 parking fee—an eminently reasonable price for a day of educational seminars, flying demonstrations, and an evening of fireworks and drone shows.
Helicopter rides in Vietnam Era UH-1 Hueys have traditionally been provided to the Rotors ‘n Ribs faithful by the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, a Hampton, Georgia-based non-profit organization dedicated to the noble work of “connecting the American soldier to the American public as an active, accepted, and admired member of the American family by presenting the story of Army Aviation and the American soldier.”
Among the unique functions of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation is the obtainment, restoration, and maintenance of airworthy specimens of aircraft representative of U.S. Army aviation spanning the Vietnam and contemporary eras.
The popularity and import of Rotors ‘n Ribs is evinced by the heft of the event’s sponsors, which include Textron-Bell, Airbus, and the Helicopter Association International—a non-profit professional trade association of over 2,500 member organizations in upwards of 68 nations.
2024’s Rotors ‘n Ribs helicopter fly-in is already in the works and will yet again be organized largely by Randy Sharkey, who remarked: “I am looking forward to the camaraderie of having other helicopter pilots join us, some familiar friends and hoping to meet new friends at this event.
Mr. Sharkey concluded: "For me, it’s the camaraderie but then also it’s the gratification of being able to offer a family-oriented event to the community that they can come out and enjoy.”
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