AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Wash. – Final preparations and practice flights took place today at Fairchild Air Force Base ahead of the 2024 Skyfest event taking place June 22-23. Captain Devin Pelletier said the event plans to bring together both the past and the future of aviation.
Captain Pelletier is the Air Operations Director for Skyfest and said they have been working for months to put all the planes on display together. Pelletier is excited about the demonstration using the KC-135, a refueling aircraft that is the most common plane at Fairchild.
“There’s going to be a refueling demo, paired up with a C-17 as well, to go along with that, so you will get to see what we actually do when we fly and refuel,” Captain Pelletier said.
The cashless event begins around 11 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. A bus route will shuttle visitors to the base, and organizers said to show up early as they expect large backups to occur on Highway 2 entering the base.
“So expect traffic, expect the cars to pile up a little bit getting out here, its not built for that amount of volume so we wanna get everyone out here but please be patient, were gonna get everyone through the gates and parked as quickly as possible,” Major Bradley Daniel, Deputy Airshow Director said.
Another large-scale act is the Wings of Blue, the A Forces Parachuting Team. Anika Sather, a member of the Wings of Blue and A senior at the Air Force Academy explained what they do during these shows.
“We are doing a flag show with all the different service departments’ flags, and we’re also doing a high show with smoke, so we’ll be doing a bomb burst which is where we all connect and spin around and perform smoke,” Sather said.
Major Daniel said to bring sunscreen and good walking shoes, as the lineup of planes and attractions is over a mile long.
