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The Morristown, TN EAA Chapter 1494 held its 4th annual Splash-in on Saturday.

The Splash-in was held on Douglas Lake at the home of Chapter members Lloyd and Mary Lou Bible.

Despite the threats of rain, the event was well attended with over 150 people in attendance including repeat visitor, TN Representative of the National Seaplane Pilots, Bill Rucinski.

In all, six planes including a Super Petrel, a Cessna 172 on straight floats, an ICONA5, a C-185 and a SeaRay splashed in on Saturday. These, along with 2 boats full of pilots and 120 people who drove over to enjoy the Splash-in made it their most successful event yet.

But EAA 1494 Chapter President Karen Hughes says it didn’t start out that way.

“Our first year we didn’t have any planes show up, we had a big cookout on the lake, and we invited all the people that we knew, which wasn’t that many our first year. One guy came over in his SeaRey the day before as we were setting up because he said he wasn’t available to come the day of. So, we ended up having one person show up the day before, but no one actually fly in on the day of the event. But everybody had a great time, and the community came over and we still had fun.” Hughes said.

Hughes went on to say that they didn’t let their first year deter them, and they set out to plan their next Splash-in and ended up having an extra exciting guest arrive.

“We were like well it’s too bad nobody flew in, but then the next year we invited people again and that was the year the 1940’s Widgeon showed up.

“We didn’t even know this person, and here comes this humongous two-engine seaplane and we were like wow! It has this little hatch on the front where the passengers get out, and as it’s taxiing into the cove, out pops this head from the front hatch and it’s this young guy and I was like this is something from a movie!” Hughes exclaimed. “The Widgeon didn’t make it to this year’s splash-in but has been two years previously along with the Super Petrel that made its 3rd visit in row this year.” Hughes said.

Hughes says they had three planes fly in their second year and the numbers continue to grow.

“We had six planes fly in on Saturday so that was pretty awesome. Five of them we knew about and were hopeful they could get there, and then the sixth plane flew in from Lebanon Tennessee, he just saw it on Social Flight and popped over.”

Hughes said the word about their event has begun to travel and they have even started receiving inquiries from out of state.

“We had a couple of others send inquiries, one as far away as Alabama, but the clouds were so low on Saturday that anybody flying in from a distance really had to think twice about flying in that day.” Hughes said.

Hughes said the Splash-in idea was born when she and other members of the Chapter got excited about sea planes, and everything fell into place.

“A few of our pilots who are also instructors a did a presentation on seaplanes and they got us interested in the Chapter. Then we found a guy that had a seaplane called a lake amphibian in Tazwell and he told us he would fly into Sky Ranch and let us see his plane.

“We did a special program at Sky Ranch on seaplanes and then in the meantime we find this company out of Knoxville that sets up to do sea plane instruction, so we got into connection with them, and we just got fired up about sea planes. In the meantime, one of our instructors who was interested got his rating and it all just came together, and we’ve just been tracking down seaplane people ever since because they’re just so fascinating.” Hughes said.

Hughes says the neighbors surrounding the event all rally around to help and support in any way they can. The Splash-in event is held yearly and there is always a cookout where everyone is invited to bring side dishes. This event is always free to the community, but donations are accepted and go towards their chapter flight scholarships and youth aviation programs.

Along with their yearly Splash-in, the EAA Chapter 1494 also hosts monthly airport breakfasts, annual fly-ins at the Morristown Regional Airport, a 2-day Youth Aviation Camp, and various ground schools and workshops throughout the year.

For more information on how you can get involved you can visit their website, chapters.eaa.org.