Ready on the runway

The Russellville Municipal Airport provided a needed stopover location for a few pilots making their way from a biplane convention in Kansas back to their home base in Spruce Creek, Fla. Heavy rains forced the pilots, who had started out from Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday morning in their trek homeward, to land in Russellville until there was a break in the weather. Airport manager Harry Mattox loaned the visitors his courtesy car and sent them to check out Russellville. “I recommended Taylor’s for lunch – whether they went there or not, I don’t know, but I think they probably did,” he said. Mattox said planes will land at the Russellville airport to wait out poor weather three or four times a year. (Pictured) A Stearman biplane maneuvers to the runway as the weather clears enough for the visiting pilots to return to the skies. The Stearman was an aircraft used as a military trainer aircraft throughout World War II. The group also included a Pitts biplane as well as an additional biplane, plus two Van’s RV low-wing crafts.