MT. VERNON — Ninety aircraft will take to the skies of Mount Vernon this Sunday (July 23) for the 20th annual EAA Air Venture Cup Race. The pilots and crew will go “wheels up” Sunday Morning at 9am to begin their four hundred and nine nautical mile trip to Wausau Downtown Airport in Wisconsin.
The festivities at the Mount Vernon Outland Airport begin well before the race even takes place with an airport open house Saturday (July 22) from 9am to 5pm. On Saturday there will be a range of events such as a EAA Young Eagles Event from 9 to 1pm, where kids between the ages of 8 and 17 can experience aviation first hand through free airplane rides. Over two hundred youth are expected to participate.
“It’s a big deal for the community” said Chris Collins, the Airport manager. ”Everyone that is here, there is over one hundred airplanes, is staying in our hotels and eating in our restaurants and shopping here.”
The EAA AirVenture Cup Race was founded in 1997 in the spirit of recreating the old Bendix Trophy Race and is dedicated to aviation advocacy and preserving the rich heritage of cross-country air racing. The Mount Vernon Outland Airport hosts this event every two years. The race is held annually in advance of EAA AirVenture.