Weathering the Storm at the Triple Tree Fly-In

The south pond wasn’t the only water feature at this year’s Triple Tree Fly-In.

If you’ve been flying long enough, you’ve probably experienced that slightly disconcerting moment when things seem unusually quiet — like in those old westerns when one cowboy remarks, “It’s quiet, Jake. Too quiet.”

That’s the feeling I had approaching Triple Tree Aerodrome (SC00) in Woodruff, South Carolina, on Thursday evening under leaden skies during the 2026 Triple Tree Fly-In, held Sept. 21-27.

My Swift was the only plane on the arrival, and upon reporting overhead the field, I was told, “The runway’s a little too wet from the last couple of days rain, so we built a new runway in a dry area. It’s just to the right of the main runway and north of the tower. Look for the guys down there in the bright green shirts — they’re marking the threshold with a white stripe.”

The canopy of an AT-6G frames Triple Tree’s tower.

I spotted the work party scurrying around laying out the threshold and asked, “What’s the landing distance available?”

The answer: “2,500 feet, but it’s a little soft at the end, so don’t go too far up there.”

Reckoning the substantial headwind and uphill run on grass would shorten the ground roll, I landed and taxied to parking.

After pitching my tent, I joined friends at the “cook your own steak” dinner, took in the scenery, and reflected on the blessings of Triple Tree’s famous “Fun, Fellowship, and Hospitality.”

The week-long Triple Tree Fly-In traditionally begins on Monday of the last full week of September, and this year it started out wet. As Founder Pat Hartness observed, “It felt like we got a month’s worth of rain Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Facilities Manager Matt Crain described how they dealt with those challenges: “Due to inclement weather and lots of rain, our runway got soft, so we decided on Thursday to not use our regular runway, but create another runway to the right. Sidestepping off of Runway 3, we found the driest place on the property and set up a new threshold, a new runway, and it worked out great.”

Facilities Manager Matt Crain goes to work smoothing out ruts in the rain-soaked grass runway.

Matt is one of only four paid employees at Triple Tree. Anthony Phillips and Bob Aoki round out the maintenance staff. All work is under the guidance of Executive Director Robb Williams. With 400 acres of property and 278 acres in grass, most notably the 7,000-foot by 400-foot runway, they have their hands full.

“For the Triple Tree Fly-In, we start preparing about a month before,” Matt reports. “After this event, we have Nall in the Fall. The radio control hobby people will come four days after the Triple Tree Fly-In, and we’ll have another week of RC fliers here.”

With only four paid staff, Triple Tree depends on volunteers who handle everything from registration and courtesy shuttles to trash pick-up and aircraft marshaling.

Volunteers lend a hand to an early morning arrival.

During the fly-in, I spoke with volunteer Jim Leonard, who was busy flagging arriving aircraft at the exit from Runway 3. Jim, who hails from Tarpon Springs, Florida, has been a pilot for 41 years.

Jim Leonard directs an arriving Ercoupe.

While critiquing landings, he observed, “Pilots are great. Sometimes they’ve been to places and they know the procedures, but the procedures change. My advice is always stay alert. But as far as fun, just being around airplanes, where else can you fly into a 7000-foot grass runway manicured like a golf course? It’s just a beautiful, beautiful place to be.”

Thursday night’s moonrise over a Howard DGA promised better weather to come.

Fortunately, with the help of sunshine and warm temperatures, most of the runway gradually became available, allowing operations to resume on the regular runway. And it was a good thing, because Friday afternoon and Saturday saw a constant stream of arrivals and parking filled up rapidly.

A Cessna 170 and friends rest on Triple Tree’s manicured grass.

Triple Tree’s J-3 Cub frames a Citabria.

Revenue generated by those pilots, campers, and drive-in spectators are the lifeblood of Triple Tree’s Aviation Centered Education (ACE), which serves young people from kindergarten through high school, offering everything from aviation reading programs and seminars to flight training scholarships. These youngsters are the future of aviation, and they get a huge boost from everyone who visits Triple Tree.

A young spectator greets an arriving pilot.

An aspiring aviator tries her hand on a simulator.

As Matt Crain notes, “We tell people all the time, ‘This is nobody’s airport, it’s your airport. It doesn’t belong to anyone. It doesn’t belong to Pat Hartness — he gifted it into a 501(c)(3) in 2012, and it became the airport of whoever comes and supports it, donates to it, buys a meal ticket, pays an admission price. And those are the people that it belongs to.’”