Soaring in for breakfast

PLAINS – Bright and early Saturday the roar of propeller driven engines could be heard overhead throughout the town of Plains as pilots from across the region dropped by for the annual Fly-In Breakfast.

The fly-in was held on Saturday June 21, at Penn Stohr Field on the edge of town, with pilots bringing in a wide variety of aircraft to the breakfast featuring pancakes and ham.

Bush planes, ultralight aircraft, personal use planes, home built aircraft and a few classic machines were on display throughout the morning.

Upwards of 30 planes packed the tarmac as curious onlookers walked around the airport and the pilots grabbed some breakfast.

Marshaller Marlin Cooper noted the amount of pilots who attended the fly-in.

“We had a good turnout today,” Cooper said.

Cooper spent the morning working with his colleague Keith Caldwell, who used an ATV, ensuring the pilots parked the aircraft in a safe and orderly manner as individual planes flew over the valley and touched down at the airport.

As the event wound down around noon, with pilots returning to their planes, several aircraft did flyovers above the airfield before returning to their normal ports of calls.

A tandem of aircraft performed one together, coming in hot over the field before veering off in opposite directions with an impressive display of skill from all involved.

The main aerial contest of the sunny day was a flour bag drop, which several of the pilots in attendance took part in.

The goal of this contest was to drop a bag of flour from one’s airplane, within the vicinity of a marked target at the end of the airfield’s runway.

Participants in the contest took off in a normal fashion before circling around the airport and coming in low and slow before releasing their bag of flour.

The weather provided a perfect backdrop for the morning event with temperature in the 70s by mid-morning and a sky that was nearly without a cloud.

These conditions certainly helped attract pilots to the event and ensure the fly-in was well attended.

Of all the diverse aircraft in attendance there were two vehicles of particular interest.

One was a classic aircraft, owned and piloted by Hank Galpin of Kalispell.

His plane, a restored all wooden 1928 Travel Air Model 6000 was on display and drew quite a crowd of curious onlookers.

The plane took ten years to restore and was flown by Galpin during the 2003 National Air Tour.

The aircraft has a long history in the northwestern United States, serving as part of the Johnson Flying Service out of Missoula and also spending time flying out of McCall, Idaho.

In the era before metal aircraft, planes similar to the Travel Air were used as passenger aircraft, ferrying eight to ten passengers or sizeable quantities of freight from one destination to another in the early years of aviation.

Bob “Breezy” Alm brought another aircraft of particular note to the fly-in from Kalispell.

This plane evoked images of Kitty Hawk with its open cockpit and two seat platform on the front of a home built aircraft powered by a 90 horsepower engine.

Alm, who once worked as a landscaper in Geneva, Illinois, started flying his Breezy in 1997 and has since visited all 48 states of the continental U.S.

Alm began his trip throughout the lower 48 with a goal of raising awareness and support for the fight against cancer.

Before leaving the fly-in, Alm partook in the flour bag drop, sending his flour pretty close to the target from his seat on the edge of his homemade aircraft.

All funds raised from the Fly-In Breakfast will go towards the Plains-Paradise Chamber of Commerce.