Just “Plane” Fun At Fly-In

Cessnas, Pipers, and choppers were joined by a Dakota and an Albatross this weekend.

It was the 38th year of the Father´s Day Fly-In — a full weekend of food, fathers, and flight at the Columbia Airport.

A former Pan Am airliner was on display as well. Several Mother Lode residents got a chance to take a ride in the historic airplane. The former commercial airliner was built in 1943 by Douglas Aviation

The DC-3´s pilot Captain John Pappas said this two engine prop plane, based now in Corona, Ca., actually served in the 8th Air Force during World War II.

Local resident John Glick was trained in such an aircraft, and flew them in World War II. He went up in the old bird and even got a turn flying the historic aircraft over the Mother Lode.

Hundreds of folks came out over the weekend to see… touch… and fly. Aircraft fly-bys, a pancake breakfast both Saturday and Sunday, a dinner and dance Saturday night, and a contest using aerial bombs made from flour completed the event.

Airborne firefighters demonstrated short-haul rescues by dropping down on a cable to the ground from a hovering CDF helicopter.