On Saturday, 30 pilots from Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico — even Russia — flew to Bartlesville Municipal Airport for the first gathering of its kind featuring only Bellanca aircraft.
The Fly-In was an opportunity for the Bellanca pilots to share lifesaving knowledge and just have some fun.
“We’ve got three vans and we’re taking people around. Yesterday we went to Woolaroc. When we schedule things, we plan things for the wives too,” Victor Catalanotto said.
Several of the wives visited the Mercantile in Pawhuska as well.
Janet Dunbar, who sponsored the event with her husband, Steve, said, that soon after they rented a hanger at the Bartlesville Municipal Airport, the idea of a fly-in began to take shape.
“We’re in a Viking’s pilot chat group and they said, it was a good place for a fly-in,” Dunbar said.
Theresa Lindinger said, “my husband, John, said, ‘I’m going,’ and he flew in from southeast Nebraska. We’re all meeting for the first time, and we’re becoming friends. Our husbands all know one another from the blog. It’s a nice little community.”
The pilot from Moscow, Ivan Posstnikov, flew to Dallas/Fort Worth on a commercial flight, and and then caught a ride to the Bartlesville Fly-in with Brad Donner from Denver.
However, due to cloudy weather, arrangements were being made to return Posstnikov to Dallas/Fort Worth with another pilot, Omeed Alaverdi, who owned a 1976 Bellanca Viking.
“We all like to help one another out,” Catalanotto said.
Victor Catalanotto, who sells parts for the Bellanca aircraft, explained how they are
Article source: http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/news/20180930/pilots-land-from-around-world
