What is it: If you’re in or around Port Clinton in early September, you may see some blasts from the past descending from the sky.
Although some will fly commercially into Cleveland, Toledo or Detroit, several of the folks attending the
Grumman Owners and Pilots Association 2024 Convention at the
Erie-Ottawa International Airport will pilot their own Grumman aircraft to the event, set for Sept. 9 through 12.
Founded by Leroy Grumman, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation – later Grumman Aerospace Corporation – produced myriad models of military and commercial aircraft until its 1994 merger with Northrop Corporation to form
Northrop Grumman more than a decade after Grummon’s death at 87. You need not be an aircraft buff to recognize some
Grumman models, such as the F4F Wildcat, the F8F Bearcat and the F-14 Tomcat – the jet featured so prominently in the 1986 film “Top Gun.”
Why is it important: This is the first time the airport is holding the event, which will see only propeller models flown in, says Jim Priebe, communications and marketing coordinator for the on-site
Liberty Aviation Museum, who has been working to help make the convention happen in Ottawa County for nearly two years.
“(Participants) are allegedly coming from all over the world,” he says. They’ll come to talk about the planes themselves and exchange ideas. They take some safety classes. They have some games – ground games and air games – that they play with the consent of the (Federal Aviation Administration), I’m told.”
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Courtesy of Jim PriebeThe Liberty Aviation Museum at 3515 East State Road, Port ClintonMembers will have some meals onsite but time has been built in for attendees to visit local restaurants. Also, the idea of arriving early or staying late to build in a day at Cedar Point has been suggested to them by the GOPA.
How to get involved: This is a private event, so local folks will not be permitted to get up-close looks at the planes, which will be parked on concrete and grass. However, should someone decide Wednesday, Sept. 11 would be a good time to visit the museum, they may be able to watch the games from the deck at the museum’s
Tin Goose Diner.
“One of the games I’m most interested in seeing – they put a target out on the runway, and they drop flour bags out of the planes as they fly over to see who can get closest to the target,” Priebe says. “And then on the ground, they arrange eggs on the tarmac or on the apron of the area, and they drive the plane to try to drive a path through the eggs without breaking any of them – or they drive through the eggs to break as many as they can, depending on the (contest).”
So, um, who will be scraping eggs off the tarmac afterward?
“I’m thinking that probably could be me,” Priebe says with a laugh, “because there’s room on the business card for more stuff.”
Museum admission is $14, although he notes several discounts are available depending on a visitor’s situation.
“This museum is unlike any other museum I’ve ever seen in terms of what we’re doing here,” he says of a place he came out of retirement to work for after careers in construction and finance. “We are rebuilding airplanes. We’re rebuilding a PT boat from the second world war.”
Among the sources of pride in
the museum’s collection is
a 1928 Ford Tri-motor, a three-engine plane with a history tied to Port Clinton and the Lake Erie Islands. The museum regularly offers rides in its 1928 Ford Tri-motor, which are slated for Thursday, Sept. 12, the final day of the convention, he says.
“We have a connection to early aviation that no other place does,” Priebe says. “And I really think this is a gem of a place. People don’t know it’s here. They need to come see it.”
Contact the Liberty Aviation Museum at 419-732-0234 or [email protected].