The Canyon Pilots Association Labor Day Weekend All-You-Can-Eat Fly-In Breakfast on Sunday, Sept. 3 set a new record with 1,231breakfasts served, 1,092 for adults and 139 for kids, according to Joe Burnside, association treasurer.

“This was the best turnout we’ve ever had for our Labor Day breakfast – about 300 more people than usual,” he said.

“We thought we were going to run out of eggs so we sent someone downtown to get more but didn’t need them,” said Burnside.

“It was a good repeat of this year’s Memorial Day breakfast, which was a record setter, too. For Memorial Day we get about 1,000 people. Our new record set this May is 1,364,” he said.

“This past Sunday, we had a line of people before 8 a.m. and started serving around 7:45 a.m. By mid morning the line stretched out onto the tarmac. It was constant until about 11:30 a.m. We were pretty well done serving by quarter to twelve but the tables were still full with people eating.”

Both this year’s Memorial and Labor Day breakfasts were beautiful days with great flying weather.

The visit by the Black Hawk on Sunday was a hit,” said Burnside. It arrived at the airport around 8:45 a.m. It took the crew of three about 45 minutes to get to the Grand Canyon Regional Airport near Wellsboro from Indiantown Gap.

Sikorsky Aircraft manufactured

the UH-60 Black Hawk, a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter.

Chris Kuonen, a member of the Canyon Pilots Association, made arrangements with Fort Indiantown Gap, a Pennsylvania National Guard Training Center, to fly the Black Hawk to the airport for display during the breakfast.

Crewmembers included Victoria Glasgow of Jonestown, PA,  crew chief; Abby Yox of Mount Joy, PA, pilot and Sam VanLoon of Mansfield, pilot. They landed by the old hanger.

The crew was kept busy talking to people about the Black Hawk. They took pictures of the helicopter and crew and asked lots of questions.

“We wanted to get it here for Memorial Day weekend but didn’t get the paperwork done. We are hoping to get the Black Hawk here next year for both breakfasts,” said VanLoon.

One crewmember noted the trip counted as flight time so they got flight pay and breakfast.