Fly Days

Back in June we stumbled across a really cool event at Paine Field in Everett. Paul Allen has a museum of historic aircraft called the Flying Heritage Collection, and every other Saturday throughout the summer they pick two or three of the planes to do a flying demonstration. We just happened to go on their first free fly day of the summer, and it was so much fun we've gone again.

The first day we went was gray and drizzling, and they almost cancelled the flight because it's not safe for them to fly with any precipitation in the air. But, lucky for us, they waited a bit and were able to fly a little later. These two planes are the Focke Wulf Fw 190 and the boys' favorite, the P51 Mustang. The 190 crashed in Russia in 1943 and wasn't found until the 80s (!); it is the only 190 in existence that still flies. These two planes are flown by a father and son team. And, since we had purchased admission to the museum that day, we were treated to a meeting with the pilots and signed photos of them flying the planes.

 I'm not sure if Aaron was more excited for the airplanes, or for the kettle corn snack we had there.

After the free fly day on the 14th, Daniel kept asking if we could go back for the next one on the 28th. I'm not much for going on big outings on my own with the boys, but this is such an easy event to go to that we went even though Chris was out of town. We almost didn't make it in time (there were quite a few tears when we pulled into the parking lot and saw the planes taxiing toward the runway already), but we somehow managed to make it over just in time. Today's planes: the IL2, the P47 Thunderbolt, and the P51B Mustang.

Since Paine Field is in operation during these flight demonstrations, sometimes larger aircraft get in on the fun. The boys LOVED seeing this 787 up close!

After the flight demonstration, the pilots taxi by the crowd. Here's the IL2.

 The P47.

 The P51 Mustang.

The lady in the wheelchair is THE Tallahassee Lassie, who the plane was named and painted for by the man standing next to her, the pilot.

Today was supposed to be another free fly day, and we were excited to go and introduce Grandma to the festivities. But, when we approached the museum we found that today is actually a huge event called Skyfair, and there wouldn't be any flight demonstrations till much later. Having been out so late last night, missing naps was not an attractive option (neither was joining the massive crowds) and we opted to go to a nearby playground instead. 

This new-fangled playground equipment is fun, but it's no free fly day. Aaron cried all the way home. :(