Planes crowd airport for Polson Fly-In
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POLSON — “It’s only 32 minutes from here to Helena,” Brian Carroll said, explaining that he was flying his wife, Kristi, to work.
Brian and Kristi attended the Polson Fly-In on Saturday in their purple and yellow Vans RV7. The paint colors were chosen by their grandkids.
One of the over 50 planes that flew in and out of the Polson Airport, the Carroll’s plane took Brian four years to build in the garage. Kristi said she started back to school in 2005 and told Brian he was going to have to find a hobby. He started flight school and got his pilot’s license in six months. Now they fly as much as they can.
The Apollo Monsoon flew a lot on Saturday since owner Todd Ware, Air Therapy Aviation, was giving rides to a few lucky attendees.
Describing the unusual plane as a powered hand glider on steroids, Ware said the plane is controlled by weight shift control. It flies at 70 mph, runs on premium gas, not airplane fuel, and can fly about 350 miles without refueling.
“It’s very stable,” Ware said, ”sort of like an all terrain vehicle for the skies.”
Totally different from Ware’s Monsoon was Hank Galpin’s 1928 TravelAir Model 6000 with its wicker seats. Galpin’s had the plane since 1992, and it took him 10 years to restore it. Now he flies all over the country in the TravelAir.
Galpin learned to fly in college. Although he loves the TravelAir, his favorite plane to fly is a Bucker Jungmeister, a German plane used as a Luftwaffe trainer in the 1930’s.
Noting that the Monsoon and the TravelAir were two of the unique planes at the Fly-In, chair Mauri Morin said “somewhere north of 50 planes” had flown into Polson.
As for the breakfast that kicks off the Fly-In, Morin said support from area residents was great. Fly-In breakfast cooks went through 100 pounds of pancake mix and ran out of both ham and plates.
“The weather’s been great,” Morin said, “and the planes have been coming and going on a regular basis.”
