The South Carolina Breakfast Club, the oldest continually active flying club in the world, has chosen the Rowan County Airport as its only North Carolina stop on its annual 26-event schedule.
They will fly in on Sunday, and the members of Rowan Area EAA Chapter 1083 will host and prepare the breakfast for family and friends of the members of this aviation organization.
The bi-monthly meeting of the SCBC has been visiting airports around South Carolina with a few visits to the Old North State since 1938. Pilots, friends and family members share meals, stories and fellowship at various airfields around South Carolina. Many joke and call it the $100 breakfast club, considering the costs involved with aviation.
“It’s a big deal to be accepted to host one of these events,” says Jack E. Neubacher, president of the local EAA chapter, a group of recreational pilots, aircraft owners and aviation enthusiasts. “There is normally up to a two-year waiting list of host cities and we have been fortunate to be on the schedule for the last seven years. There are many airports across the region that have been waiting for an open date for years. ”
Gerald Ballard, the SCBC president, says, “We always enjoy our trip up north to Rowan County, it gives us a chance to see how the other half of the Carolinas live, and with the fuel prices here always well below the normal market price, it makes good sense to top off our tanks while we visit, and the breakfast is good, too”
The number of participants varies with the weather. They average about 75 aircraft and 130 pilots, friends and family members, but on a particularly nice morning there could be up to 150 airplanes and 200 members on the ground during breakfast hours.
Every type of airplane, from ultralight to private jet, attends these meetings. The homebuilts, light twins and production aircraft begin to arrive at about 7:30 a.m. and by 11:30, most will depart.
Everyone can become a member of this association. You join just by attending. There are no dues. You also can visit again, anywhere they meet. What the SCBC does is keep people around South Carolina and adjoining states flying and enjoying the fellowship of other pilots.
People are welcome to walk the flight line and look at the airplanes with the pilots and aviation enthusiasts from around the area.