Wings, Wheels and Ducks draws 2,600 people

STAFFORD — Wings, Wheels & Ducks drew an estimated 2,600 people Saturday at Stafford Regional Airport, according to airport manager and Rotarian Ed Wallis.

The Rotary Club of Stafford put on the event, with the help of area sponsors.

Even with that number of attendees, Wallis indicated that attendance could have been better.

“The forecasts of rain didn’t help,” he said. “They tend to keep pilots and car enthusiasts away.”

Keith Pellicano, Stafford Rotarian and “head duck” for this year’s event, said that it is the club’s “signature event.”

Among other community services the group has completed are highway cleanups, a senior citizens’ prom and a playground for the Olde Forge community. Rotary also provides scholarships, said Pellicano.

Groups such as county high schools’ vocational and athletic groups partnered with them to earn money for their causes. Pellicano said that the area high schools raised $11,000 through the sale of “adopted ducks.” They kept half of it to supplement needs for their respective departments.

Rotarian Ron Singleton of the Stafford County Resource Development, estimated that about $26,000 of prizes were distributed.

The two big winners in the duck drop were Evelyn Davis of Baltimore, Md., and Nancy Gilmore of Purcellville. Davis won a new car and Gilmore, a cruise to the Bahamas.

Attendees were allowed to vote on their favorite aircrafts.

Stafford resident Tom Ward won a first prize for “Warbirds” category in the plane voting.

His plane was painted as a facsimile of a Lockheed Neptune PV27. He was inspired by a plastic model kit he put together in 1960.

“I swore if I ever had a plane it would look just like that,” he said.

The plane was a kit he purchased “one section at a time,” he said. He and his wife built it in his basement. Its maiden flight was in November 2008.

Another Stafford resident, Don Booth, displayed his “Pitts Special,” a 1974 “plans built” plane. The plane was built from the ground up with a set of plans.

There were about three of them built in the Fredericksburg in the same time period, he said. Built by the late Fredericksburg resident Claude Grimes, it was never flown by its original owner.

Dave Rosser, of Fredericksburg, said that Wings, Wheels and Ducks was a “good chance to get out with the family on a beautiful day to show the grandkids the sights.”

Jack Adams, 7 and a student at Hartwood Elementary School, said he was disappointed that he was unable to get a plane ride at the event. However, he did enjoy an orange Camaro at the car show that he referred to as “Bumblebee.”

Jim Lawrence is a contributing writer to the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com.