The 2016 High-Desert Fly-In will take place from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 30, at the Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport, 701 Airport Road. Admission is free, and residents, tourists and pilots are invited to Winslow’s historic airport to enjoy airplanes, history, music, dancing, food and more.
To kick off this year’s event, the High Desert Fly-In Committee will host the Fly Back in Time Gala in the airport’s historic hangar on Friday, July 29, the evening before the Fly-In. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., when attendees will be greeted by the nostalgic sounds of the Big Band Connection from Flagstaff.
A catered dinner will be served at 7 p.m., and after dinner, the band will perform until 9 p.m. Tickets are available for $20 at the Winslow Visitors Center or from a link on the High Desert Fly-In website at www.highdesertflyin.com. Please purchase your tickets by Monday, July 25. There will be no ticket sales after that date or at the door.
Gala attendees are invited to travel back in time by dressing in vintage clothing while they listen and dance to the Big Band Connection. Since the early 1990s, some of Northern Arizona’s most outstanding musicians have performed in this exciting big band, entertaining audiences with swing and jazz classics made famous by band leaders such as Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Harry James and Glenn Miller.
The next morning, the Winslow Rotary Club will host a pancake breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. for $5 per person. High Desert Fly-In polo shirts will be on sale for $30 and $35, and 2016 historical airport calendars will be $5.
Attendees will be allowed on the tarmac to view the visiting aircraft, which will include general aviation planes and medical transport aircraft owned by Guardian Air and Aerocare. The Just Cruis’n Car Club will also host a Show-and-Shine of vintage automobiles, including the 1940 Seagraves fire truck owned by the Winslow Historical Society.
Inside the historic hangar, the Flying Fun Kids Area will include an Airplane Stories drawing and storytelling activity, a Glider-Making Workshop, a Careers in Aviation display and an interactive World Travel Map where kids of all ages can pin their favorite travel destinations.
The Flying Through History Area will include the Old Trails Museum’s Flying through History: The Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport exhibit and The Swamp Ghost and World War II exhibit. Historian Erik Berg will talk with attendees about his artifacts and writings on aviation in the Southwest from Arizona Highways and Arizona Goes to War: The Home Front and the Front Lines during World War II, and author Robert F. Kirk will sell and sign his book, Flying the Lindbergh Line: Then and Now.
In the Active Organizations Area, representatives from Wiseman Aviation and the U.S. Forest Service will host displays and talk with attendees about their current activities at the airport. Attendees can enter the Wingspan Auction and bid on items donated by local businesses by purchasing a batch of tickets equal to their wingspan. At 10 a.m., Fred Gibbs of the Federal Aviation Administration will present a safety seminar on the WINGS Safety Program and current events affecting aviation. The link to register is on the High Desert Fly-In website.
Go online to www.highdesertflyin.org for the latest details on how to attend.
The High Desert Fly-In Committee is a nonprofit partnership between the City of Winslow, Wiseman Aviation, Just Cruis’n Car Club, Winslow Chamber of Commerce, Winslow Public Library, Winslow Rotary Club and the Old Trails Museum.
