Jun 17, 2025
EXPRESS FILE PHOTO A pair of Piper planes are silhouetted against the mountainside during a previous Sentimental Journey Fly-In.
LOCK HAVEN — Visitors to this year’s 39th Sentimental Journey Fly-In, taking place from Tuesday, June 17 to Saturday, June 21, can expect an expanded event that welcomes all flyers and planes, while respecting the rich Piper heritage of the area.
What would have been the Fly-In’s 40th anniversary — had it not been grounded in 2020 due to COVID-19 — marks a new chapter, as longtime organizers prepare to hand off control to newly elected leadership, ready to take the helm and pilot the event into its next era.
In 1986, a group of dedicated volunteers banded together to provide an aeronautical reunion in Lock Haven in an effort to preserve the legacy of the iconic Piper Cub. Since then, the event has welcomed thousands of individuals from all walks of life.
The biggest draw of the Fly-in is the camaraderie amongst pilots and aviation enthusiasts who make the Piper Memorial Airport an annual destination.
A new management team at the Sentimental Journey Fly-in is looking to expand the event and make it more relevant and fun by modernizing it. To keep up with the times, the Fly-In is enhancing its digital footprint through online marketing, an expanded social media presence and new software to digitize some of its operations.
At its core, the Fly-In remains dedicated to celebrating aviation and inspiring future generations of pilots. Parked on the field during the fly-in will be Aeroncas, Bellancas, Cessnas, Cubcrafters, Luscombes, Pitts, Stearmans, Stinsons, Swifts, Taylorcraft, Wacos, and Vans, and just about anything else with wings.
There have been three new fantastic events added to the usual Sentimental Journey line up.
On Saturday, the final day of the fly in, the gates will be opened for free — no admission charge!
On that day there will be a “Community Day” event running from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. that will feature all the usual events of the week-long fly-in, including educational forums, a “Kidz Zone” with bounce houses, vendors and food trucks.
But for 2025, Community Day adds three exciting new features: a car show, a short-take-off-and-landing (“STOL”) competition and free airplane rides for kids.
The STOL competition will run on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon with anywhere from 10 to 12 STOL aircrafts participating.
Alan Uhler, Jr., president of the Sentimental Journey Fly-in, is enormously pleased with the addition of these extra events.
“Small planes and enthusiastic pilots have been a vibrant and vital part of the Lock Haven story for seventy years. We’re opening our gates, our arms, and our hearts to everybody in the area to come and see both the science and the art of aviation,” he said. “Because the event will be free to both flyers and non-flyers, and will offer unique events like the car show, this is a way for us flyers to say thank-you to the community which has supported aviation for so many decades.”
The goal of a STOL competition is to see which plane and which pilot is able to take-off in the shortest distance — sometimes less than fifty feet!
The pilots compete for precision landings, controlling their speed to a landing on a particular spot on the grassy runway. These pilots competing are highly skilled, able to maneuver airplanes with the slightest hint of airspeed.
Weather permitting, visitors can expect ten to twelve STOL aircraft to participate. It takes great skill to push these extraordinary aircraft around the sky, but it’s great entertainment. After the demonstration, visitors can inspect these unique aircraft, meet the pilots and learn about the exciting world of STOL flying.
Visitors are reminded that small airplanes are highly dependent upon good weather. The STOL competition will require reasonably gentle winds and clouds no lower than 1,000 feet above the ground.
The car show, arranged by the Central Pennsylvania Street Machines, is expected to be a hit as well. Weather permitting, the show will feature at least two dozen exotic autos.
Members of the Central Pennsylvania Street Machines club restore, drive, display, and compete with vehicles ranging from dune buggies to antiques to sports cars and everything in between. The club is a strong supporter of the Lock Haven community, participating in parades and donating both time and money to worthy efforts.
Sentimental Journey also will be offering free airplane rides to all interested kids from the ages of eight to eighteen. This is part of the famous “Young Eagles” program which has been able to give rides to more than 2.1 million kids over the past twenty years. Weather permitting, this event will be hosted by Chapter 1327 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, based at State College. Free flights are scheduled from 10am to 2pm and interested students and their parents should gather at the blue tent outside the Piper Aviation Museum, at the west side of the Lock Haven Airport.
The STOL flights require good weather, and the Young Eagle flights require even better weather. Pilots will only fly interested kids if the air is reasonably smooth and calm.
Another new addition to this year’s line up is the Short Wing Piper Club Annual Convention, which will run simultaneously at the Lock Haven Airport in conjunction with the 2025 Fly-In. It’s a gathering for plane enthusiasts who own, fly or appreciate Short Wing Piper planes.
The organizers at Sentimental Journey ask visitors to be patient and recognize that even in the 21st Century they have no control over the weather and it does what it does.
The 39th Sentimental Journey Fly-In will take place at Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, with tickets priced at $12 for adults, $5 for attendees aged 13-17 and free entry for those 12 and under.
You can find more information about the Sentimental Journey Fly-In as well as a detailed list of events on their website, www.sjflyin.com
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