Pilots fly vintage aircraft to D.I.’s Cajun Restaurant

Why drive the 20 minutes from Jennings to D.I.’s Restaurant when you can fly there in about a fourth of the time?
“It’s about nine miles from Jennings to here,” said Bill Ross of Irving, Alabama, as he watched planes land on the runway at D.I.’s Cajun Restaurant south of Basile. “I can make it here in about six minutes if there is no wind.”
Ross, his wife, Sharon, and their son Steven were just a few of about 40 pilots who flew into the area for the 35th annual Jennings Stearman Fly-in. The five-day event marks the end of the flying season for many Stearman owners, and the event includes a poker run, the lunch fly-in, flour bombing and spot landing contests, and formation flying.
While the event is mainly for those who fly Stearmans — WW II era bi planes once used as military trainer aircraft — other small plane pilots also flew their aircrafts to the event. Participants flew in from states including Alabama, Texas, Missouri, South Carolina and Louisiana.
The Ross’ flew their Army motif painted 1941 Stearman Model 75 to Jennings, where the event is based, and the trip takes about three hours. Bill has been a pilot since he was 16, and they have owned their Stearman for 19 years. The couple attended last year’s fly-in, and this marks their eighth year participating in the event.
Brothers Ron and Rob Pate from Hilltop Lakes, Texas, flew in with three others in four different planes.
“They ran us out of Texas, so we came here,” Ron said, laughing. “We love the people here, flying, food and telling lies”
Ron has attended the fly-in for the last 15 years, and he flew down to this year’s event in a Cessna 170. Rob has attended the event for 25 years, and he has owned his current Army motif painted Stearman for 22 years.
“This part of Louisiana is awesome,” he said. “The hospitality is great, and there are such outgoing people in this neck of the woods.”
Ron purchased his Stearman in honor of his father, and the plane brings back fond memories for the pilot.
“We grew up around the planes because our dad flew one as a spray pilot,” he said. “I think a lot of people like the romanticism of the plane. These were around at a different time in this country. Things were more pure then. Flying one of these is like taking you back to that time. I think that’s why most of us fly them. Back then, people landed them out on grass runways in the country and kids and grandparents came out to see them.”
For more photos from the fly-in, visit Featured Galleries at eunicetoday.com.
To contact Claudette Olivier, email claudette.oliver@eunicetoday.com.