Planes, cars to descend on Plains

People are invited to the annual Wings and Wheels Fly-In at the Plains airport from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, where there will be an assortment of aircraft, a car show, contests, prizes and food.

The fly-in is free and sponsored by the Sanders County Pilots Association, but for $5 people can have a breakfast of pancakes, ham, coffee and juice, said Nita Deardorff, one of the event’s coordinators. The fly-in alternates between the airports of Plains and Thompson Falls. Not too long ago a car show, coordinated by Todd Logan, was added to the fly-in. Logan said there are no competition or trophies, just a chance for people to show off their cars. They had about 24 vehicles in the show last year. Deardorff said they average 35-40 aircraft at the fly-in, but last year had only eight due to bad weather.

There will be a flour drop competition for the pilots at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The pilot that drops his or her bag of flour closest to the target will receive a gift certificate. This year, for $5, people can put their names in for a drawing to be the flour “bombardier.”

Deardorff came up with a new game for kids this year — a ping-pong drop at 9:30 a.m. One of the pilots will make a low-flying pass and dump hundreds of brightly colored ping-pong balls. Every child that retrieves a ping-pong ball will get a prize. Finding a numbered ball will mean a bigger prize and the child that scoops up the most balls will also get a prize. Kids can also participate in a contest that calls for them to fly a paper airplane through a hula-hoop. Deardorff said the hula-hoop competition will go on all day.

People will also have the chance to see how good an aviator they would be by flying an airplane simulator. Play with the simulator is free. The Sanders County Pilots Association will be selling $2 raffle tickets for a gas-powered RC airplane with a 60-inch wingspan. The drawing for the RC plane will be at noon. Money raised from the breakfast and drawings will go toward an aviation scholarship for a high school graduate in Sanders County.

Members of the Clark Fork Valley Flyers, a local airplane remote control club, will have a display of RC aircraft and will have flying demonstrations on the nearby former runway.