Planes, planes, and planes!

The civil air patrols of southern MN have been busy making breakfast lately.  Last weekend's fly-in breakfast was hosted by the Mankato branch (errr...cadets) and this weekend it was in O-town.  Rumor has it pilots in Faribault are preparing their own runways and griddles for a fly-in later in September.  We'll be there! 

Ethan, Owen, Auntie Angie, Grandma Jill, Grandpappy, Grandpa David, Grandma Doreen, Miles, Weston, and me (mommy) helped round out the list of family attendees for the Mankato event.  We decided to go for the planes instead of the food this first time around.  Probably good because the line for pancakes was backed up out of the hangar, and there were plenty of things happening on the runway for us to watch.  Like this (and the blinding sun) --

 

Lots of planes were coming and going.  We all admired this fancy red one with the glider wings (I know...totally didn't do this plane justice with that description) until another one was taxing down the runway in front of us.  We were easily distracted!

OMG! Another plane!

Apparently this is how pilots keep their planes from blowing away on windy days.  They tie them down with a rope.  Bet it's funny when they forget to remove "remove before flight"....well, imagining it happening is funny, anyway :-)

Flash forward one week (to today), and we attended the fly-in breakfast at Owatonna's Degner Regional Airport for the fourth summer.  As I've mentioned in posts from previous years, we are more than happy to support the local cadets.  They are a fine bunch of young men and women, and they sure know how to make  mean french toast breakfast!  It's extremely well organized and there are always really need planes to see.  The Mayo One helicopter usually tries to make an appearance too, but we either missed it or they were too busy this morning (hopefully with other fly-in breakfasts...).  Instead, our attention was drawn to this beauty -

Miss Mitchell, a B-25 medium range bomber from WWII.  It costs $2400 per hour at cruising speed (230mph) to run her. Pretty amazing to have this piece of history right in our own backyard!  We were playing at a park on Saturday morning when the plane was flying into Owatonna.  Needless to say, her engines were purring.

We're looking forward to checking out the fly-in breakfast in Faribault, for both the food and entertainment.  That crew just might steal our hearts if they serve bacon.  Fingers crossed!