Across 116 acres of grass, hangars and hundreds of parked planes, spectators stared at the sky Thursday at Arlington Airport.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
“It’s a three-fourths rollover and he pulls back on the stick!” the announcer exclaimed.
A red plane spun, dipped and shot up in the air. It flew at a 90-degree angle and slowed to a stall with its nose pointing toward the blue sky.
“He holds it, holds it, holds it – and a backslide,” the announcer said.
The plane backed down the way it came. A minute later, it was skimming 30 feet off the ground, trailing smoke.
“That’s crazy flying,” said Steve Clark, who was visiting from Indiana.
Clark was there with a friend, Chris Hand, and Chris’ son, Justin, 11.
Justin stood next to his father’s Cessna 140, which Hand had parked next to a field of other small planes – many of them built by their pilots.
Justin said he’s handled the controls on his dad’s plane a few times but doesn’t have his pilot’s license yet.
Could he pull off the stunts he was watching now? “Probably not,” he said.
Later, more planes took to the skies and dazzled plane buffs who had come to the annual Northwest Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In.
The five-day Arlington air show, conference and pilot social attracts 50,000 visitors a year – 1,600 of whom camp out with their planes, according to the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. The Fly-In has been an organized event since 1988, but started informally in 1969 when a group of pilots from Seattle decided to stop over in Arlington on their way to an air show in Abbotsford, B.C.
British Columbia resident Andrew Seefried has been flying for 25 years, and has been to the Arlington show every year for the last decade. He said the Fly-In is a chance to show off his experimental plane, a Glass Air III.
It’s also his chance to catch up with fellow aviation buffs.
“The best thing is the people and the aircraft,” he said. “We’ve got wonderful people and pretty interesting planes.”
This year’s Fly-In features free admittance to Paul Allen’s vintage warplane collection. The Flying Heritage Collection has 12 planes on display for the Fly-In.
Maggie Ward-Smith, a spokesman for Allen’s company, Vulcan, said people were “surprised at all the treasures they saw.”
Tour guide Simon Butler, a 24-year-old in a group of mostly senior volunteer guides, said the crowds were curious and loaded with questions.
“Especially with things like that,” he said, pointing to a Polikarpov Po-2 LNB Russian fighter. “No one knows what it is.”
“For the people that are experienced aviators, it’s these oddities that keep people interested,” he said.
Reporter Chris Collins: 425-339-3436 or ccollins@heraldnet.com.
Arlington Fly-In
The annual Northwest Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In in Arlington continues through the weekend. For a list of events, go to www.nweaa.org.
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