Sept. 10th was a beautiful day to have a First Day of Issue Ceremony.

How lucky we were to have another beautiful day to sit by the pool on Rattlesnake Island. Then we flew back to have an outdoor First Day of Issue Ceremony at the entrance to the Liberty Aviation Museum, next door to the Port Clinton Airport. Plans are already being set to have the 60th anniversary First Day of Issue Ceremony on Thursday August 27th, 2026 at the Liberty Aviation Museum. Next time we will be in the conference hall with air conditioning and plenty of chairs.

My wife counted 49 in attendance at the ceremony which is pretty good considering there was very little advertising of it.We are shooting for 150 attendees for the big 60th anniversary ceremony.

We had many pilots attending the ceremony with 4 of the pilots speaking on past memories of flying for the Island Airlines company. This current issue, "Island Aviation Through the Decades is truly dedicated to the pilots who flew the Lake Erie Islands routes. It was a dangerous job flying planes built in the late 1920's to landing on short grassy runways in unpredictable weather conditions. The island pilot had more take-off and landings per year than any other airline pilots.

I'm finally caught up with the increasing amount of RILP orders. I have just posted a few more FDC options available in limited quantities on the "SHOP 2022-2024" page. The unveiling postcards we handed out are available for 2.00. Single stamp FDC envelopes and postcards are listed as well. If you don't see a special FDC listed, please send an email describing what you would like as I may have it. We had several customers request different combinations of FDC's. Each time a request was made, we made a dozen or more in case others would like them too.

Thank you all for your continued interest in the Rattlesnake Island Local Post as it has been a genuine pleasure carrying on the tradition set in motion by Dr. James Frackelton in 1966. We are seeing at least a 50% increase in customers and orders each year. We look forward to next years GASS near Chicago and the big international show - Boston 2026.

Dave Gill - RILP-PMG