Part of the "Rendezvous" weekend in Colville is a fly-In breakfast and open house at the Colville Airport. While I love watching planes fly around, I have no desire to actually go up in one.
I had already planned to go to the open house, but after talking to my brother on the phone the other day I had some alternative reasons to explore. We just yacked it up when all of a sudden he tells his daughter to write down a number? I was like,"what's this" He tells me a plane had crashed into a Costco parking lot in Southern Cal and by googling the planes tail number you can see who owns it?
Really? All the more reason to find out who my flying towns folk are... right?
Our airport comes equipped with one asphalt runway, which is 2700 feet long. I'm not familiar with the landing requirements, but will assume it is meant mostly for prop-airplanes. I did notice on the fee page that the annual hanger lease rate is 0.12 a square foot a month. I think I'll sell the house and move into a hanger, which at approximately 4000 sqft of space (more than our house) the cost would only be $480 per month...SCORE! Also, you have access (just tell them you are from out of town) to the airport "courtesy car" for $10 a day... DOUBLE SCORE!
What, this no airplane, but faster than most here! Yeah, I just had to take a photo of this very nice 1963 gold Avanti. You don't see a lot of these cars driving around since less than 3000 were built by Studebaker, right before it went out of business in late 1963. There were many more produced in later years, just not by Studebaker. According to the link, round headlights indicate it's a '63.
Again, not an airplane. On the way home the other night Donna spotted a number of deer, half hidden in some tall wheat grass near the road. This particular young lady thought she was invisible behind the single blade of grass.
Ok, back to the airport. This is the only plane registration I'll post on the blog, because it's my plane. You'll have to type in other tail numbers on your own.
I may of exaggerated slightly in the previous sentence when I alluded to this being "my" plane, but that is exactly what the officer stated to me when I inquired about the Cessna. It is owned by the citizens of Washington state, he announced. This is a state highway patrol plane that is used almost exclusively in catching speeders. I asked if he used radar and Mike said they only use a stopwatch and marks on the highway that are every 1/2 mile to calculate precisely the offenders speed.
Here is just one of the pages that indicate ownership when you type into google the tail number.
I can tell you that this is a 2012 Cub Crafters CC11-160 Carbon Cub and judging by its big tires I"d say it would land nicely on any dirt or grass runway. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the price of a used one and found a 2013 for $200K...slightly out of my range, by a football field!
This was the largest plane at the open house. A Pilatus PC-12 that is based in Spokane and used as a medical evacuation ambulance.
While it may look like mechanical trouble for this 1950 Delhavilland Chipmonk, (and I thought so too) it was all part of the pilot showing off. This plane buzzed the runway at seemingly full speed, 30 feet high and puffing smoke like a dragon.
This 1995 Rans S- 12 Airaile Ultralight looks like has been beat up once or twice in that past few years.
On an even smaller scale, and more open to the environment, is this 1998 Six Chuter SR-5 two seat ultralight. As the name implies, a chute is deployed upon take-off as this short YouTube video shows.
The runway was lined with about twenty or thirty planes of various ages and manufactures.
These brave souls probably don't know they are climbing into the cockpit of a 43 year old airframe for an exciting $35 flight over the valley. To put it another way...the plane is over 15,000 days old!
I'm not too sure that filling "future guests" up on pancakes, ham and eggs is really a good idea for the interior of the cockpit.
I found the breakfast great, but then I wasn't going up into the "wild blue yonder" either.
I will close with a short video of some very lucky tourist that made it back home, safe and sound.
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