In Jefferson Davis Parish, a group of pilots from across the US is hoping to start a new tradition by bringing an airplane competition to the Jennings Airport.
STOL, standing for 'short takeoff and landing,' is gaining popularity across the world, but the competitive aspect of it is new to Louisiana. We had a reigning champion tell us how it works.
"They have a starting line and they measure where you lift off, so you try to take off as short as you can possibly take off then you fly back around and you try to land as short as you can. The trick is you have to be accurate. The line where you took off from, you've got to land beyond that line. But you want to be close to it because wherever you stop, they measure back to that line," explains Steve Henry.
The pilot with the shortest distance is the winner. This weekend, the Swap STOL competition starts Friday morning at 9 and will run through Saturday afternoon. Visit the Swamp STOL facebook to learn more about attending the event for just $5.
People have traveled from Miami, Washington, Idaho and everywhere in between to meet up in Jennings.
"Jennings is now on the national STOL series circuit. So of the four or five or six stops that the national series makes, all these guys show up with their awesome aircrafts to compete in different cities. So Jennings is one of those cities now. And we're hoping to make this an annual thing where every year the best pilots come here to Jennings Louisiana to compete," says Matthew Peterson who organized the event.