LAURA JAMESON/THE EXPRESS Dwayne and Lisa Waters are pictured with their dog Georgia in front of Dwayne’s Piper PA-22/20 at the Sentimental Journey Fly-In on Thursday, June 19.

LOCK HAVEN — The Sentimental Journey Fly-In brings in Pipe enthusiasts from near and far, including Florida couple Dwayne and Lisa Waters… and their furry companion Georgia.

Dwayne and Lisa, along with Georgia, didn’t let the bad weather earlier in the week stop them from flying their Piper PA-22/20 to the annual event for the first time.

The couple lives in Cocoa Beach, Fla., particularly on the south end of Merritt Island — home of the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

Both worked for the space center for nearly 30 years — with Lisa working on the shuttle program in its safety department and Dwayne in the crew compartment as a technician, spacecraft operator and on the close out crew.

Dwayne said he’d been flying since he was a kid.

“She doesn’t fly, she rides in the right seat and keeps her eyes closed most of the time,” Dwayne joked.

“And takes care of the dog,” Lisa chimed in.

According to Dwayne, he’d always wanted to have an airplane of his own. About 20 years ago, he said he was able to purchase the plane that took up residents near the Castanea Fire Company’s picnic grounds near the runway space for the William T. Piper Memorial Airport, on Thursday afternoon.

“Going on more than 20 years ago, I found this project and I rebuilt it from the ground up,” he said.

Dwayne said his Piper PA-22/20 took roughly 16 years to complete. He explained he converted the nose wheel, instead putting a tail wheel on the plane.

“We have more ground clearance, it looks cooler and it goes a bit faster because you don’t have the drag there,” he said. “And I wanted a tail wheel.”

The passion project was completed while the couple raised their kids, worked full time at the space center and more.

“We were raising kids, dogs, cats, swimming pools, maintaining the house, moving and working full time at the space center,” Dwayne said.

This was the couple’s first trip to Lock Haven, though they did find issues with the weather.

“The weather wouldn’t allow us to get in until today. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at weather forecasts for more than a week to figure out a day,” Dwayne said.

Before reaching their destination in central Pennsylvania, Dwayne said the couple stopped in Charleston, S.C. to visit family for a few days, before continuing their trip to Lynchburg, Va. on Wednesday.

“We flew about three and a half hours to Charleston, then about two and a half hours to Lynchburg and then about two and a half hours to here,” Dwayne said.

The couple was looking forward to experiencing the Fly-In and what the local area had to offer after finally touching down on Thursday morning.

This was the longest trip the Piper plane has made so far.

“This is the first, longest trip we’ve taken with all of our stuff. So we’re just a little bit under our gross weight,” Dwayne said.

Though the Piper plane which Dwayne brought with him is the first he’s owned, he noted he’s working on another — an experimental RV7.

He explained the RV7 is a faster plane with fewer seats compared to his Piper plane — which can seat four people.

“It’s different than anything here,” he said. “It’s experimental.”