(Sound of plane engine) (Rooster crowing) (Bright Guitar music) (Cow moos) (Dog barking) MATT DIRKSEN: When you're raised on a dairy farm, as soon as you're old enough to carry a little bucket or do anything, you're right in with everybody else.

Because the whole family, it's a family occupation.

(Music continues) (Insects chirping) (Plane engine rumbling) ANDREW KING: To me, the best part of flying almost always is taking off and leaving the ground, because as soon as you break that bond and you're in the air, it's it's a totally different feeling, and you feel lighter and it's exhilarating.

You know?

There's there's a freedom to flying.

(Birds chirping) PAULA DIRKSEN: To farm, you have to be very dedicated.

You can't just pick up and take a vacation whenever you want.

You have responsibilities, whether it be grain farming, whether it be dairy, hog, whatever it is, you have to be here to do it.

(Pail scraping gravel) (Rumble of motorcycle) FRANK PAVLIGA: Probably more often than not, my life on the ground is spent thinking about my life in the sky (laughs).

(Plane engine rumbles) CHRIS PALMER: It's quiet and relaxing and the view is good.

It's...just simple, I guess.

(Yelling) MATT DIRKSEN: If I did not have the cows to milk, I would love to take the time to learn how to fly an airplane.

And I really hope that one of my children, because they will probably get to do it before I will.

But...

I would love to be able to fly an airplane on my own.

(Sound of plane engine) JIM HALL: You get up 1000 feet off the ground and uh, the the landscape, you lose a lot of detail.

So, the landscape looks pretty much like it did in the 20's or 30's and you can kind of go back in time and, and if you fly in a 1930's airplane, it's, you know, once you're up in the air, it's it's almost like it's 1930 again.

ANDREW: We're recreating something in a sense.

I mean, we have the right kind of airplanes and we're landing in a hayfield.

We've met- we just landed out of the blue in a hayfield, and we met a farmer who was friendly and got to know the farm family.

And things like that, happened a lot more often back in the 1920's and 30's than they do now.

I don't think I, I've never heard of anybody else, and I know people in the aviation world all over the place and all over the United States and Canada and I have never heard another story like this one.

MATT: Well, it was on a warm summer day in late July.

My wife, she was shucking sweet corn.

Her and uh couple of the kids.

It was pretty peaceful.

I think it was a Sunday, Sunday evening.

Milking was finished and uh, we heard a noise and I I turned and I looked and I saw some airplanes.

PAULA DIRKSEN: Just kind of flying real low, you know, just kind of hee-hawing around in the sky, and the next thing we know, um, they're going down.

MATT: The boys started yelling and screaming.

'Dad, Dad, there's some planes.

They're crashing.

They're crashing!'

MARK DIRKSEN: It looked like they were crashing.

We thought they're going to hit our silos but they landed in the hayfield.

ANDREW: I was looking around, as always, for good looking fields and I saw this... one of the north fields, and it had a hay wagon or something like that out in the middle of it.

And I thought that'd make a good picture, we could land next to that and take some pictures and look like barnstormers.

And so, I circled down and landed there, and Frank came down behind me and landed there.

FRANK: Andrew is actually a very adventurous person, and that's what's attracted me to him as a friend and as a flying buddy.

If Andrew sees a hayfield somewhere that looks inviting, I know he's not going to fly over it, and he's going to land, and I'm going to go and right behind him.

ANDREW: Shut off the engines and got out and got out our cameras and started taking pictures and pretty soon a pickup truck came driving into the hayfield.

And you always wonder how people will react to your landing in their hayfield.

MATT: Dairy farmers are very particular about their hay because that is a cash crop, or that basically it's for the cattle and alfalfa is known that it does not like a lot of, oh looking for the right word, but it doesn't like a lot of traffic, put it that way.

FRANK: And they come flying up and we're thinking we are in some serious trouble here.

So how about if we make a story up here that let's just say the model A overheated.

We touched it.

Yeah, it's a little warm.

It overheated.

Okay.

MATT: There were a couple pilots standing there by some hay rakes that I had, and they were, a little apprehensive.

Thought maybe this farmer might be a wild man or something, you know, that they had landed in the field.

ANDREW: They were probably a quarter mile away, and we could hear the two young boys in the back of the pickup truck going 'Wow, cool.'

Yeah.

Oh, well.

At least somebody doesn't mind.

(Laughs) MATT: I said, 'you guys got trouble with your planes or what's-' And Andrew made it sound like, you know, they maybe they were having some trouble.

And, we just got to talking a little bit, and, and once they found out that I was cool with them being in the field, then they let it out that 'we didn't have any trouble, we just uh, were looking for a photo opp.'

ANDREW: I don't remember how many vehicles we ended up with out there, but, the town priest happened to be visiting, and he came out, and he wanted to have his picture taken with a helmet and goggles on by the airplane.

MATT: And I told him.

I told him right away.

'So, now that you guys have landed in my field with these planes, you think you could give a couple rides?'

PAULA: And they were gone for so long, I just could not figure out what was going on.

I was actually getting a little bit worried.

Then the next thing I knew, I heard screaming and I looked up and there was planes flying above my head, and I just heard the screaming and I thought, what is going on?

MARK: Yeah, it was, it was different.

MATT: After Mark landed, he told Ben, he said, 'man, that is so cool.

That is so neat, and you got to do this.'

And so, then Ben, he told Frank, he said, 'you can give me a ride but just one thing, don't make any turns.'

(Laughs) ANDREW: And just as we were getting ready to leave, Matt said, 'you guys should come back next year and we'll have a little cookout for ya.'

And I said to him, 'don't say that unless you mean it, because we'll come back for free food.'

MATT: Myself, I had never seen planes like that before, and just to get them back so I could see them again, I thought that was uh, basically a, a reason.

Offer- I offered him barbecue so that we could get them back.

I thought, (laughs) you know, how can I get these guys to come back?

Well, let's have a little a little barbecue or something, you know?

Well, you, Andrew doesn't turn down food that easy.

(Laughs) (Strumming guitar music) (Voice on car radio) ANDREW: My father was a schoolteacher, but his hobby was antique airplanes and flying antique airplanes.

And I grew up around the Old Rhinebeck airdrome in upstate New York, where they did airshows every weekend, all summer.

And I started out as a kid who washed airplanes and ran around and gopher, picked up things and carried gas cans and things like that, and eventually got to work on the airplanes a little bit.

And then they ended up flying the airplanes.

I was doing airshows when I was 18 years old and flying a Fokker triplane when I was 19 years old.

And so, in the antique airplane world, I've led a privileged life, I have to say, not lucrative, but privileged.

(Music continues) FRANK: Back in 1973, my father and I went to Oshkosh, to the EAA fly-in there.

And at that point, we we knew we were going to build something.

We just didn't know what.

And by the time we came away from that fly-in we knew we were going to build a Peitenpol together.

And we started on it on my sister's birthday in 1974, and we, together spent nine years working on it.

Uh, it was one of those things that was, for me, a real turning point in my life, because I got to see my dad from a whole different perspective.

We were partners in something, working on this airplane together.

And that teamwork and that connection with him is a reason why I will never sell this airplane, ever.

It will be a part of our family forever.

(Music continues) CHRIS PALMER: For work, I fly uh, it's a charter company in Dayton, and we fly uh new airplanes.

They're new jets.

They're, you know, they fly at 40,000 feet and they're really complicated airplanes.

Um, they're flying on the autopilot most of the time.

A lot of other pilots go to work and they fly their their trip and um, that's enough for them.

They- they could uh never think of going home and getting on an airplane and flying for fun that they're kind of done with work.

But for me, I've separated that.

(Starting of plane engine, engine sputters) CHRIS: There are ways to enjoy it without being so technical and rigid.

Um, I just enjoy the simplicity of it.

Our airplane doesn't have an electrical system.

It doesn't have radios, it doesn't have instruments.

It's just a plain, simple airplane.

(Cows mooing) MATT: The dairy farming is, it's not that it's hard work.

It's just that the work never stops.

It never stops.

It's twenty-four-seven.

Uh, Christmas, somebody is milking cows.

PAULA: The kids, you know, they understand that with farming, we can't just take off.

So, every summer it's like, okay, has Andrew called?

When are the airplanes coming?

You know, it's just an excitement for them.

It's something that they can talk about that nobody else can.

You know, it's a memory that will never, ever leave them.

SARAH DIRKSEN: I've never- I've never rode in the Sky Gypsy.

STEPHANIE DIRKSEN: I have.

I did it last year.

KIM DIRKSEN: I never go in the airplane that flips.

MATT: Yes you want to be focused on your work and your occupation, but there's so much more to life than just making money.

There's- there's a lot of a lot of things to be enjoyed in this world.

And... the planes have just been something that added a lot to my life.

We really, through the years, we've just...

It's become a part of us.

ANDREW KING: Barnstorming in the old days and the way we think of it was the quote unquote gypsy pilot on his own with his own airplane who flew around, mostly in the Midwest where it was flat, landing in fields next to towns and hopping rides for money.

(Plane engine rumbles) ANDREW: A lot of people in the modern world want to shelter themselves from risk and from the unknown.

And I think the barnstormers were people that didn't worry about that.

They wanted to try new things and they were interested in in experiencing what they, what they hadn't done before.

I, I was hired once to fly a 1940 Wacco from Anchorage to Saint Louis, and people said, 'man, but you've never flown across the Canada and the Rocky Mountains before.'

I said, 'that's exactly why I want to do it, because I haven't done it before.'

And I think that's something that maybe comes from the influence of learning about the pilots of the 1920's and 30's.

Man, if there was something they hadn't done before, they wanted to do it.

(Up-tempo guitar music) (Plane engines rumble) ANDREW: I was the first one to land in the field, and I'm always the one that organizes the trip back to the field.

And so, I do handpick the pilots to go with me.

But they kind of pick themselves because they're people that that I've either known for a long time or people that come into our group and that fit into the group.

I mean, you have to fit into the group in order to go along.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Showers and storms.

Some with heavy rainfall tonight.

Lows in the mid 60's.

More showers and storms tomorrow again, heavy rainfall, possibly highs in the upper 70's.

ANDREW: Weather is one of the big worries about getting to the Dirksen's every year.

And again, once we're at least once we're in Ohio where it's flat, it's not as much of a worry.

But it seems like the last few years, every year, we have been a little worried about weather at the last minute.

We've always made it on our planned day.

ANDREW: I don't know, I say we fly, get while the gettings good.

CHRIS PALMER: Might need to.

ANDREW: Well, I'll tell you what.

Maybe we'll pull the Pitts out.

I'll just zoom around the patch and take a look.

FRANK PAVLIGA: Take a look.

ANDREW: That's that's another kind of barnstorming thing the barnstormers dealt with that.

You know, they were out on the field camping out in the field somewhere where they'd been hopping rides or on their way somewhere.

If a thunderstorm came in, you know, you just had to hope that it wasn't bad enough to blow your airplane away.

ANDREW: To the northeast.

It looks crappy.

And to the south.

It looks okay.

I mean, I bet you can see five miles to the south.

Could make Jim's no problem.

(Planes takes off) (Pensive piano music) FRANK: Flying is the ultimate three-dimensional experience.

CHRIS: I think it's different for everybody.

For me though, it's just, pure freedom.

And, um, there's nobody controlling you or telling you where to go.

And I just really enjoy that.

ANDREW: And you see things that you never see driving across the country.

Even if you drove the back roads, you wouldn't see the things that we get to see.

Seeing a covered bridge go by or seeing an, an old 200-year-old church or something like that go by.

A lot of times, flying around, even at 1000 feet, you can smell the fresh corn.

So, you still get to be connected to the earth while you're separated from it.

FRANK: Flying gives you an entirely different perspective, not only on the world, but on on life.

You get to see that your little place in the world is just that, a tiny little place in the world.

When you can see 50 miles in all directions around you and realize that you can fly forever and still see 50 miles in all directions around you, uh it makes you realize how inconsequential you really are in the broad scheme of life.

ANDREW: Jim's usually is the meeting point.

And Frank comes from northeastern Ohio, and we've had people come up from Kentucky, and there's a number of people, of course, in the Dayton area, Chris, and some of the people in the Dayton area that don't have to come from anywhere, really, to get there.

(Talking in the background) ANDREW: Pete, you got to see the Standard back there.

PETER HAYS: Hey, check out the altimeter.

ANDREW: We look at Jim and think, man, nobody deserves it more than Jim because he's generous.

He's done a lot of things for me over the years, and the idea that he lets all these guys, I call Jim up in the springtime and say, 'oh we're going to meet at your place again' and he says 'great.'

And so, he has five or six or eight people from different parts of the country show up and land at his airport, and we sleep in the house on couches and on the floor and have people bodies lying all over the place.

And so, you know, generosity is one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about Jim.

JIM HAMMOND: You know, I grew up here on, on the farm, and, and I flew my model airplanes out here, but I was kind of alone.

I didn't have an airport to hang out at, so I was kind of isolated.

And, you know, with, with our hobby, with these airplanes, we like to share it with the public and showing and, you know, educating the public on old airplanes.

And so they know that there's good stuff is still going on.

And, and those kids, you know, it's all about the kids, you know, out there.

They get so excited about us coming every year, you know, and they're hard working farmers and they don't get to do a whole lot.

So, it's just it's just fun to see them having fun, have us show up there.

KIM DIRKSEN: Yeah, it goes way high!

MICHAEL: He's my favorite!

MICHAEL: And I'm going to go out with it in my... with my friend.

KIM: Me too, my friends are gonna be there.

MICHAEL: He wouldn't be scared, but he was scared a long time to go up.

KIM: I was scared for a long, long time ago.

CHRIS DIRKSEN: No Kim, you might just get a taxi again.

KIM: I'll just go in the sky.

(Guitar music) (Sound of children playing) MATT DIRKSEN: Let's pray, guys.

ALL: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless us, oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive, from thy bounty... MATT: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Amen.

MATT: Summertime.

If you can find the time in the evening, just to sit and relax and sit on the front porch because it's warm out.

Um, it's got to be my favorite time.

(Woman Singing) ♪ In the darkness Is where I see the light♪ ♪♪ ♪ In the quiet ♪ ♪ Is where I hear the most ♪ ♪♪ ♪ And all will be revealed ♪ ♪ In the night ♪ ♪♪ ♪ We all fall down ♪ CHRIS DIRKSEN: Tag, you're it!

♪ Or take flight ♪ (Background conversation) ANDREW: Ice cream is pretty much a tradition of every trip that I go on, whether it's (chuckles) barnstorming or road trip or anything.

(Laughs) FRANK: This is a daily requirement.

ANDREW: I did refuse the cherry, but no such thing as too much whipped cream.

JIM: We live in different parts of the country, so we don't get to see each other a lot.

So, when we, as they fly across the country and everybody gathers in one spot, we get to catch up with what everybody's doing and what they're restoring and what kind of airplanes uh they're flying you know.

So we get to have a couple day reunion before we even get to the Dirksen's.

ANDREW: I stopped there one time.

I think it was in the Travelaire going west, and I helped Matt milk the cows.

And you walk through about that much cow manure.

(Group laughs) Matt's like, 'come on, what are you doing?'

And then they have 'em come in the thing, and you have to spray off the teats with some disinfectant solution or something, and they hook up the machine to it, and then the machine knows when to shut off automatically when the cow's empty.

(Laughter) I was like a farmer, I was helping out milking the cows.

We'll see how tomorrow turns out.

(Insects chirping) PAULA: The morning of the air show, I will have to say, this place gets crazy.

(Upbeat guitar music) MATT: Chaos.

Chaos.

(Laughs) MATT: Summertime is always very busy without taking on anything else.

PAULA: You know, the whole day is just work, work, work up until the show starts.

You know, tables, chairs, scrubbing garage out and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

MATT: We mow a little strip out in the hay, basically to give them a little better, idea of where to land, make sure that there aren't any holes in the place where they land.

JIM: We all get up in the morning and untie the airplanes that are parked outside and get the airplanes out of the hangar and shut the hangar up.

And then we all, we launch and head for the Dirksen's.

And it's it's kind of a relief at that point because all the planning is over, and now you're actually, you know, you're actually headed there.

(Plane engine starts) FRANK: The trip over uh, is is definitely one of anticipation.

(Plane engine rumbles) ANDREW: Matt and Paula always tell us that people in town and the church start asking about March, 'when are the airplane guys coming.'

So, it's kind of a neat feeling to think that people are anticipating your arrival like that.

FRANK: I wish my dad was here because the experiences that we have at Dirksen's are things that we used to talk about when we were building the Pietenpol when I was a teenager.

All the things we'd like to do with it.

And unfortunately, he passed away in 1991 and we only had the airplane flying for about seven years at that point.

So, he never had the opportunity to experience these things.

But every year, to and from Dirksen's, one of the uppermost thoughts in my mind is man I wish he was still here.

I wish he was still here.

MATT: Usually we'll get a phone call from Andrew sometime around noon, kind of letting us know when he thinks he might be arriving.

Uh, I get nervous, thinking 'Oh, my gosh, he's going to be here in a little bit.

We don't have everything ready.'

(talking on phone) Ben said right away.

He thought David and Evan were good enough.

They could probably play a little bit, would they?

What would they be interested?

Would they do that for me?

It's nothin' fancy?

No, no.

We'll just pull our old piano out on the porch and just to have something.

Oh, somebody, banging on the keys.

PAULA: The kids are outside.

They wait from early in the morning till the planes arrive.

You know, they're like, "they're going to come.

They're going to come."

I said, yeah, but they're not going to come to after lunchtime.

"No, I bet they'll come early."

You know, this is kind of how it is the morning of the airshow.

We go back and forth, but I am busy preparing things up until the minute they come.

MATT: Mom where should we put the cars?

(Talking in background) ANDREW: I had the bright idea a couple of years ago to try to get some antique car people out there.

(Sound of old car horn) CHRIS: I knew you were gonna beep your horn.

BEN: Quiet Chris.

ANDREW: And I went on the old Barnstormers Internet and found the model A Ford club in Richmond, Indiana, just down the road from Winchester and sent an email blind and got an email back from them saying, 'yeah, that sounds neat.

And, we'd like to come up and do that.'

And I think they weren't really sure what it was because, again, it's not any kind of a common event that anybody would be sure what it was without going there.

(Car horn) CHRIS: Oh, that horn's not very good.

ANDREW: It adds to the overall atmosphere of it because old cars and old airplanes and an old farmhouse, and it gives it more of the feel of the 1920's that we're looking for.

(Reflective guitar music) SARAH: It's cool to have it in our place because it's in our field, it's at our house.

And, we're like the main people.

STEPHANIE DIRKSEN: Yeah, it's cool that it's always at our house.

We're the lucky ones.

So glad they landed in our field.

ANDREW: A little bit after lunch, you know, one, two o'clock in the afternoon, try to get to Randolph County Airport, the Winchester County Airport, and usually we'll have two or three other people meet us there.

So, we'll end up with six or seven or eight airplanes.

That's the plan A, right now.

All right.

SUE HEINS: Where did you get your t-shirt?

ANDREW: This is the farm.

In fact, this is what you're going to see.

These are the silos.

And this is looking west at the farm.

And this is my old Fleet.

And that's a Pietenpol, of course.

SUE: I love it.

(Sound of helium blowing out) MATT: Oh I didn't mean to pop that.

Michael, don't let go.

We'll lose all our balloons then you can't do your little balloon show.

Tell him thank you.

KIDS: Thank you!

MAN: You're welcome.

(Rumble of plane engines) (Dramatic piano music) KID: Everything's all yellow.

(Chatter of children in car) MATT: It's going to blow away?

KIM DIRKSEN: No, in the back.

MATT: In the back it could blow away, couldn't it?

KIM: See?

MATT: Oh, so you better hold on to your balloon.

Hold on tight.

KIM: Okay.

(Music continues) MATT: Ready?

Go!

Easy, easy, easy.

(Piano wheels squeak) CHILD: Look at the big flag!

(Music continues and crescendos) FRANK PAVLIGA: When we see those silos off ahead, it's like your heart starts beating a little faster.

Because, ah, we're here.

CHILD: I don't see them.

PAULA DIRKSEN: Well, when the planes start to appear, I wouldn't even have to be outside.

All I have to do is listen for the screams.

(Kids start yelling enthusiastically) STEPHANIE DIRKSEN: They're coming!

MATT: Looking out to the blue sky and waiting, and you can hear a little noise.

And then all of a sudden, boy, you see that first plane and, and then you start counting.

One, two, three, four, five.

STEPHANIE: I see three!

I see three.

(Kids talking over one another) MATT: Michael come here.

Michael come here.

There all eight are going to be together right?

SARAH DIRKSEN: There's two more over there.

MARK DIRKSEN: Two more over there.

ANDREW: It seems like you can't get within a half a mile of the place and kids are spilling out into the yard and arms are waving and people are screaming and jumping up and down.

So, you know, they're excited.

And that's exciting to know that people are looking forward to your visit that much.

(Dramatic piano music) (Yelling) STEPHANIE: Look!

Look!

JIM HAMMOND: Everybody starts dropping down low to do, to do the initial buzz job.

And it's pretty exciting to see all the kids and everybody run out of the house and wave.

(Rumble of plane engines) MAN 2: Hey!

(Excited conversation) MICHAEL DIRKSEN: Behind Scamper!

(Dog barks) FRANK: Touching down at Dirksen's in that hayfield, uh is a, is a feeling that's very difficult to describe other than to say that you feel like you're home.

It's kinda like your home away from home.

(Music continues) MATT: Frank started coming on down, and all of a sudden, I seen sparks.

(Big pop) VOICES: Whoa!

Power line!

MATT: And I was like, oh, that ain't supposed to happen.

STEPHANIE: He cut the line!

MICHAEL: He cut the line!

FEMALE VOICE: Oh no!

STEPHANIE: We got no power!

FRANK: It actually wound up spinning through my propeller as I hit it, came back down and broke off at the landing gear and the wire split out.

And of course, in a situation like that, it's the best landing I ever made in my life.

ANDREW: Frank got a new nickname.

Frank's new nickname is Sparky.

FRANK: It got stuck at the last split second there.

MATT: A little spark burn on the wheels.

But, other than that, it really didn't affect his plane.

I was just thankful that it had a happy ending.

SARAH DIRKSEN: Hey Kim, are you gonna get a ride?

KIM: Yeah.

MATT: Long time no see.

ANDREW: Welcome to Winchester.

Yeah.

(Laughter) MATT: Chris.

CHRIS PALMER: Howdy!

MATT: I always shake their hand and ask him how they're doing.

We talk about family and, uh try to kind of get reacquainted a little bit again, because we haven't usually haven't seen each other for, usually a lot of times it's the whole year.

Peter.

PETER HAYS: Yes.

The little red with the black stripes.

MATT: Okay.

Which ones?

Oh, that.

I didn't even really- I didn't get a look at Andrew's up close yet.

I know you were flying.

I don't remember your name, but you have a Volvo.

Dan.

Yes.

(Laughs) (Guitar music) PAULA: You know, it started maybe 30 people the first year, and now we're up to, I think it was 180.

ANDREW: If everybody wants to come around in the front here.

PILOT: For repairs, maintenance, things like that.

He actually bought an entire engine.

CHRIS: I'm Chris uh...

I didn't realize it was going to be quite as big a deal.

Basically, the whole town comes out.

This is a 1946 J-3 Cub.

It has 65 horsepower.

It holds 12 gallons of gas.

It's the slowest of all these airplanes.

So, I was behind everybody today coming here.

(Truck engine rumbling) ANDREW: They had to wake him up.

MATT: I was about to say it didn't look like he had a big smile on his face.

(Andrew laughs) Right.

Right.

ANDREW: It cut the power to some houses, and so the power company had to come out.

And of course, I think the sheriff showed up.

So then you always wonder, you know, it's the same old thing.

Is somebody going to make a stink about it?

So yeah, we were we were a little worried.

ANDREW: What would, what would Lindbergh do?

What would Waldo do?

WWWD.

JIM HAMMOND: Go on with the show.

ANDREW: You're not kidding.

(Laughs} (National anthem plays) (Bright music plays) ANDREW: So, we usually open the show with a toilet paper cut.

So, we call it the ribbon cut.

We don't call it toilet paper.

But but that's usually the opening act.

(Dramatic music) (Crowd cheers) CHILD: He's going for it!

(Cheers and screams) JIM: Well, the balloon busting that we do, it's actually pretty difficult to do.

First you have to find the balloon and they're kind of hard to see.

And then you have to time it.

And then at the at the very last minute you can make slight corrections and try to hit the balloon.

So, it's it's pretty hard to do.

(Music continues) (Children cheer) FRANK: You've got a balloon coming up.

A you don't know really how long it takes for that balloon to get to your altitude.

B sometimes it's tough to tell how far ahead it is.

And C you're not quite sure sometimes where to hit it.

There's just that one little sweet spot.

If you hit it there, you know it's going to pop.

(Balloon pops) (Crowd cheers) WOMAN: Yay!

He got one!

(Clapping) (Kids chanting) Hit the tractor.

Hit the tractor.

Hit the tractor.

(Plane engine roars) FRANK: The flour bombing contest with the tractor is one that I think each one of us, kind of struggles with each year.

(Plane engine roars) BOYS: Awww!

JIM: Usually the first pass you've missed by pretty much.

And then each time you go around the field, you can adjust.

It's rare that anybody hits anything.

(Children scream) FRANK: I did hit the tractor a couple of years ago.

Yes, I did, caught the backside of it.

And uh, nobody saw it but me.

Well, but I'm telling you, I hit it.

KIM: Hey, drop some candy!

FRANK: Actually the candy drop at Dirksen's is the first time I've ever done that.

Kids just love it.

KIM: Drop some candy!

Drop some candy!

(Children scream with glee) FRANK: It's kind of neat looking down and watching this, this mass of kids hanging on the side of the road, just waiting, you know, just waiting.

And as that stuff comes down, bam!

It's like opening the floodgates.

(Kids screaming in excitement) (Chatter of people conversing) ANDREW: The people that live in the area, of course, you know they are a community and they that it's a kind of place where everybody kind of knows everybody and what's going on with such and such down the road.

And so, we have the community of pilots and the community of, the kind of the rural community.

And they seem to fit together well.

(Shoes tapping) FRANK: Paula and the kids are, to me, the idyllic American family.

They welcome strangers into their home the same way they would welcome family into their home.

We felt like we were part of their family literally from five minutes after we landed and met them and still feel that way today.

(Shoes tapping) (Country music plays in the background) (Little girl mumbles to the dancers) (Crowd laughs) (Crowd applauds) (Peaceful guitar music) (Squeak of porch swing) (Soft tapping) JIM: Usually after hours and we're sitting on the Dirksen's front porch, we usually start telling airplane stories from the past and stuff that happened last year and the year before.

Or maybe at another fly in.

And, and uh kind of rehash some of the things that happened.

MATT: You talking about- No, that wasn't the guy that was off duty though.

ANDREW: He was the big guy.

MATT: See I didn't know him.

ANDREW: Yeah.

Yeah.

So then he walked in front of the Waccos and he said, anybody know who hit the wires?

And everybody.

And he said, 'oh, it's a big secret to everybody or something like that?

You know?

(Group laughs) FRANK: Most of us tend to be relatively quiet people most of the time, but you get four or five pilots together who fly together and experience the same things together and typically you can't shut us up till about 12:30 or 1 in the morning.

MATT: See ya in the morning.

PILOT: Hey Matt, be alright if I crashed on your floor?

MATT: Yeah that's fine.

PILOT: Awesome.

MATT: That's fine.

Any of you other guys can't sleep, you want to crash on the floor, that's fine.

If it gets to cold for you.

No problem.

We'll see you guys.

See you in the morning.

Take care.

PILOT: Goodnight Matt.

(Laughter and conversation from the men) (Rumble of plane engine) (Upbeat guitar music) (Rumble of plane engine) MATT: When you're upside down... ANDREW: Yeah, If you push and you're upside down.

It's like if you're going the outside loop where you're on the outside of the loop.

DAN BUGLER: Like a souvenir shop they didn't have no t-shirts.

(Group laughs) FRANK: Sort of got soldered a little bit there, didn't it?

JIM HAMMOND: I didn't know a Pietenpol had that in it.

ANDREW: Yeah who would've thought.

At least and leave that unscathed.

CHRIS PALMER: How the hell did you not see that?

(Group laughs) I thought we were talking about a little wire.

(Group laughs) PILOT: You will all pay.

FRANK: You know, I love these guys.

But boy I tell you what, they sure rub it in when you do something wrong.

(Chuckles) FRANK: Ok, slip your feet in there.

There you go.

All right.

Have a seat.

ANDREW: Pilots like to hop rides.

Flying is just something that you naturally want to share.

And pilots like to hop rides.

And that's one of the great things about the Dirksen farm.

And it's, oh I guess, spreading the gospel of airplanes a little bit.

Uh, but mainly it's just fun.

FRANK: I'll give you a genuine pair of 1930's goggles to wear.

I would say I love taking kids for airplane rides more than anyone else.

Uh, especially a kid who's never flown before.

(Music continues) MATT: Michael, what did ya think?

MICHAEL: Cool.

(Matt laughs) (Roar of plane engine) MARK: Once a year is not enough.

I got to take flying lessons.

PAULA: Yeah, we were supposed to get them flying lessons this summer.

And it just never worked out.

We were so busy.

They said now is the time to do it.

Before he turned 16.

MATT: You want to get going I want to get a picture before you leave.

ANDREW: Yeah, yeah, yeah, get the kids out here.

PAULA: You want to take a picture?

Because I got food on the table.

MATT: Yeah, I wanna get picture of all the family real quick.

PAULA: Ok.

When the pilots fly out the next day after after the air show it's kind of a sad time, really.

I mean, you get so pumped up all week from doing this and doing that and this having this big doings with the guys.

And then the next day, it just seems like they're up.

They got breakfast, they do a couple flyovers and they're gone and it's over with.

You just feel kind of empty.

You know, sometimes I wish it could last a couple days.

ANDREW: All right, we're gonna head over and get some gas.

Good to see you again.

PAULA: Take care guys, have a safe trip.

ANDREW: See ya kid.

BEN DIRKSEN: You guys will have to stop by more often.

ANDREW: Yeah, we'll try.

We'll try?

Gonna say goodbye to Matt.

MATT: They've touched our lives in a way, that, it'll never go away.

I mean, it's a memory that's there.

It's put in place, the memory is put in place, it won't leave.

So, they will always be a part of our life, regardless whether we continue the event or not.

(Low rumble of plane engine) FRANK: Nothing lasts forever as we all know.

We've been going to Dirksen's now for nine years and I hope it continues forever.

But even if it doesn't, uh, Matt, Paula, the kids, they have become our friends.

And I think we will always be friends with them, whether we land at their farm every year or whether we don't.

(Roar of plane engine) ANDREW: When it's gotten so big at the Dirksen's we always laugh about, man, it's getting too big, and pretty soon we're going to have airshows with radios and things, and we're going to have to find a new hayfield.

But, it's hard to imagine doing it.

We're so fortunate to find this one.

It's just hard to imagine the odds of if you went out to find another hayfield and find somebody that you would get along with the way we get along with the Dirksen's.

You never could recreate what we've what we've done at Winchester and what we've got there.

(Dramatic piano music) (Plane engines roar) MICHAEL: I can't pick 'em up.

I'm scared to pick up dogs and kittens.

(Kids continue to talk) STEPHANIE: Ow they hurt.

They hurt when they get inside your shirt.

Wait which one?

SARAH: This is Blackie.

KIM: I like black.

MICHAEL: Blackie don't say... JIM: He was just eating manure a minute ago.

(Men laugh) CHRIS: He's cleaning his tongue off on your beard.

(Men laugh) ANNOUNCER: To own the Barnstorming movie and soundtrack set, go to mpt.org/shop.