Sep 14, 2014, 11:47 AM by James Polivka
In what is becoming a tradition of mine, the second to last weekend in August was spent with the 182 at the Ferry County Airport (R49) for the Wings Over Republic Fly-in. A friend and I departed Saturday and headed east over the cascades via Steven’s pass and Highway 2, making sure to avoid firefighting TFRs that were prevalent during mid-august.
Upon arrival (after embarrassing myself with a nice bounce, but still making the first turn-off) we were marshalled to a prime parking spot on the west side of the grounds overlooking Lake Curlew and the mountains beyond. The view even made the outhouse look good.
There are so many things that make this one of the most enjoyable fly-ins I’ve been to, and make me want to keep coming back year after year. First off, the entire town gets behind the fly-in. The airport is in a very rural part of the state, yet hundreds of people drive in to see the planes and enjoy the great food. That brings us to the second reason: the food! The Saturday dinner alone was worth the trip. A big stake dinner where they hand you a cut of meat and you cook it yourself over a wood fire, with whatever seasonings you want, with baked beans, baked potato, dinner roll and watermelon to go with it. Besides the food and planes, they have shuttles into town to visit the shops and museums, and they offer pontoon boat rides on the lake. After a relaxing day, my favorite part was sitting out under the stars. Being so far from any cities, the view of the constellations and the milky way were amazing. Here’s a view of our neighbor’s plane under the stars:
On the way home, A couple friends and their Bonanza decided to tag along. After a brief fuel stop in Omak, we proceeded south to find a path back through the mountains between the building thunderstorms and TFRs to a beautifully clear Western Washington.
Overall, we had a great weekend with 2608R at the Wings Over Republic Fly-in with beautiful scenery, good food and some great friends. This is high on the list of things to do again next year.
