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A Vultee BT-13 sits ready for takeoff Saturday at the Havre City-County Airport during the annual Air Fair fly-in of the North Central Hangar of the Montana Pilots Association.
Children wait their turns to fly in airplanes during the Air Fair. At the event, people could buy an all-you-can eat breakfast and look at the airplanes and talk to pilots. Children were given free rides in the planes. A pilot also tried Sky Bowling dropping a ball from an altitude of about 200 feet in an attempt to knock over barrels painted to look like bowling pins. A pilot also dropped candy from a plane for the children.
The doors of the paint-peeled hangar were thrown open and the sounds of propellers cut through the air as the 2016 Air Fair fly-in got underway at the Havre City-County Airport Saturday morning.
Area residents flocked to the small airport where for a few hours people got to talk with pilots, marvel at personal as well as experimental aircraft and for $7 per person, enjoy an all-you-can-eat breakfast provided by the Havre Lions Club.
Willie Hurd, president of the North Central Hangar of the Montana Pilots Association, said his organization has been putting on the event annually for about 20 years.
Hurd said the fly-in is meant to raise the airport's profile by opening its facilities to the public and seeking to encourage interest in flying among children.
Pilots are mainly from Havre and surrounding communities, but Hurd said some years pilots who from as far west as Shelby, east as Glasgow and south as Bozeman to talk with attendees and show off their planes.
Hurd said there were about 11 planes on display this year, with three or four others on scene to provide 20-25 minute rides to children and their parents.
Hurd said the number of aircraft was less than organizers had anticipated.
Some of those who came to see the planes have been to previous fly-ins.
Dan Kucera tries each year to make it to the fly-in.
He stood with his 10-year-old daughter Abby at the head of a small line of parents with children waiting to go for a flight.
Kucera said his other two daughters, ages 7 and 13, were on a plane ride.
"I don't think she's ever done this," Kucera said about Abby. "I think the other two have done it, but she's always been more hesitant."
After Kucera's other two daughters landed and emerged from the plane, he and Abby climbed into a small plane with the pilot.
Others had never been to the fly-in before, such as Taber Burton.
This year was the first time for Burton, his wife and his two sons Harrison, 7, and Ossian,4.
Though both boys had ridden in commercial airplanes before, Burton said the fly-in was their first time in a small airplane.
"They really like it up there," Burton said. "They were looking out the window, checking things out."
Both boys said they want to be pilots,
Harrison said he wants to be a helicopter pilot when he grows up, while his younger brother said he wants to fly airplanes.
But the real star of the fly-in was a Vultree 1941 BT-13, a World War II training plane owned by Linda and Bob Marshall of Belgrade. It was outfitted to look just the way it did during World War II.
John Anderson, a member of the Hangar Association, got a chance to ride in the plane, which he said was like "a Cadillac in the air."
"It's just very big, very smooth and elegant is how I'd like to describe it," he said.
Those at the fair who purchased a T-shirt for $100 were able to go for a ride in the BT-13, as did the winner of a $20-per-ticket raffle.
Organizers said that, in all, 15 people got a chance to ride in the plane.
Speaking to the audience over the microphone, Anderson tied the B-13 to Living History Day in Havre,
"This airplane is very much living history," Anderson said. "It's as close as you are going to get."
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