Between 8 a.m. and noon on Sunday, May 28, a total of 1,364 people, the most ever, attended the Canyon Pilots Association’s All-You-Can-Eat Memorial Day Weekend Fly-In Breakfast in the commercial corporate hangar at the Grand Canyon Regional Airport, 112 Runway Road, Wellsboro.

Of the 1,364 who ate breakfast, 1,228 were adults and youth, ages 9 and up; 136 were 3- to 8-year-olds. During the three hours between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., an estimated 1,314 people went through the breakfast line or 438 per hour.

“It was a perfect day. We knew we were going to have a good turnout because of the weather but we didn’t know how good,” said Joe Burnside. “On average about 1,000 people attend our Memorial Day breakfast each year. Our highest turnout until today was slightly more than 1,200 but I’m not sure what year that was. Now, 1,364 people is our new record for the most that have ever attended,” he said.

“The line of people for the breakfast was steady, out the door and almost to the runway from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. with no let up. We were all crazy busy. At 11 a.m., the line disappeared and boom that was it. From 11 a.m. until noon, about 50 people came through,” said Burnside.

“We were concerned we were going to run out of food and other supplies but didn’t. We sent someone to the grocery store to buy eggs, maple syrup, cooking oil, 18 more gallons of water that we needed to mix the pancake batter, make the orange juice and coffee and to have for people to drink, and trash bags. We went through lots of trash bags.”

More than 50 airplanes landed at the airport during the breakfast with several pilots commenting that it was the perfect day for flying – sunny and calm. Two airplanes and a helicopter provided rides for the public.

The Memorial and Labor Day breakfasts are theCanyon Pilots Association’smajor fundraisers with monies used to support youth interested in aviation and to benefit the airport.