A little history...
2003/2004 – The predecessor of the Wrens Fly-in,
Rotors over Carolina (ROC), in Aiken SC, hosted by PRA Chapter 13, had grown into a hoppin' event with around
25 to 30 gyros in attendance. Gyro life was good.
2007 – The Fly-in moved to
Wrens GA, hosted by EAA 172, and kept reasonable momentum through 2008. After that though, the event sputtered-along with relatively light gyro attendance.
2013 – Wrens hit an all-time low on a COLD late-October weekend with only 2 gyros and about 6 gyronauts in attendance! It was fun even still.
2014 – Enough was enough! With some focused activity here on RWF, mixed with cool videos and pictures, and a lot of word-of-mouth,
Peach State Rotorcraft, and
Carolina Barnstormers spearheaded the effort to build the fly-in back to greatness….
2015 – A move from late-October to mid-September (to avoid the colder late-October temps) seemed to help too…
at least for a while…
For 4 glorious years, up through 2017, the Wrens tarmac was hoppin’ with attendance growing to OVER 200 people, and around 30 (or more) gyros, and a swarm of cool fixed-wings, ultralights, trikes, and helicopters, etc. What’s more, folks were actually FLYING-IN with gyros (especially with euro-gyros) from Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and other states! Life was great!
Paradise couldn’t last forever though… right?
2018 – Unwittingly, that move to mid-September had placed Wrens slap-dab into the
PEAK OF HURRICANE SEASON! As a result, in '18
HURRICANE MICHAEL forced everyone to flee home by Friday evening. Bummer.
2019 – low gyro turn-out.
2020 – Even in the midst of Covid, Wrens was going to happen... but was eventually
cancelled due to HURRICANE SALLY!
That makes
two hurricane wash-outs! Dang it!
So,
2021 brings a scheduling change to early-October so neither hurricanes... or cold weather... are as likely to be a factor.
BE THERE IN 2021!