The small North Cascade town of Concrete hosts its annual Fly-In this July 22-24. http://vintageaircraftmuseum.org/calend ... es-fly-in/

This Fly-In is a local favorite with a beautiful setting in the foothills of the North Cascade Mountains. If the weather is favorable it really brings the rarely seen classics out of the woodwork. As of today the forecast looks good. There is now avgas available on site.

Camping on the grass under your wing is plentiful. The town is a short walk away. The San Juan Islands are not that far away for a secondary destination following the Fly-In.

Mears Field (3W5)

I flew to Mears about a month ago and landed on the grass there. It really is a beautiful setting. I was hoping to fly to Oshkosh at that time, but those plans are unravelling for a variety of reasons. Here's what it looks like turning base to final for landing to the west:



and here's short final for landing on the grass:

Went there last Thursday , meet one of the ladies who is part owner, she told me about the Flyin.
Will try to make it ,(weather permit) very nice airport setting, and the detail of restoration of those old airplanes is oustanding.

We're planning on camping for the weekend too, wx permitting of course. Looking forward to meeting up with fellow bcp'rs.

motoadve wrote: Went there last Thursday , meet one of the ladies who is part owner......

Don't know what she might be part owner of, the airport is owned by the city of Concrete. Who by the way has done a great job with it-- a number of years ago, they paid for a wonderful little pilot lounge (which the local pilots provided the labor for), and laid out a bunch of hangar pads and leased them out on a very reasonable terms, plus are on board with the fly-in every year.

BTW not that there's all that many left anymore, but this is by far the best fly-in in the Puget Sound area, and the only one that's getting bigger every year instead of shrinking. After several year's absence, the pancake breakfast next door at the school cafeteria will be back this year, put on by the volunteer fire dept -- always one of my favorite parts of the fly-in.

I'll be there in my blue-and-white Skywagon, hope to meet up with some other BCP'ers. Stop and say hi.

A few pics of previous years at Concrete.

The weather now looks like it will be stellar, which means there will be a great turnout. Saturday will have the most activity. Myself and a few others are planning on arriving Friday afternoon as I'm sure more will be. It's always fun to wake up Saturday morning and watch all the arriving aircraft come up the valley.

This is a great fly-in with a wide assortment of flying machines from ultralights to a warbird or two with everything in between. Mostly it's just people like you and me getting together to enjoy a classic small town fly-in sitting under our wings judging the landings of all the arrivals.

There's always an ample amount of high speed flybys down the runway before actually coming around to land..you know, we officially call them go-arounds, "oops, came in a little fast there on final".

And for those serious back country guys who would like to add a genuine back country experience to their trip to Concrete, Stehekin State is only about 45 miles away to the east over some of the most beautiful mountain flying anywhere in the world. And I would rate Stehekin as a true back country strip.

Hope to see some of you at Concrete. I'll be somewhere near a 59 172 (white with black and silver striping).

Great pics! This is our first time there, really looking forward to it. I'll keep an eye out for you and others. We'll be arriving Friday around 5:30-6:00, my Dad will hopefully be there early afternoon and save us a spot next to him. Look for my teal and white 182 parked next to a 207. And yes, the weather looks stellar!

The fly-in was a great success, the airport filled up with airplanes. Maybe too big a success-- I understand that the guy(s) in charge of aircraft parking got on the radio and declared the airport closed due to lack of available parking spots. Not sure they had the authority to do that, not sure they really had to either as more airplanes could have fit with a little creativity in parking them. Plus people were leaving as well as arriving. I'd have been pretty pissed off to fly all the way there & then get turned away. Luckily, I got there about 10 before the airport was quite full so it wasn't an issue for me.

Saw some friends, and some cool airplanes. Drug my 30 year old nephew along also, he'd never been in a GA airplane or around GA at all before so it was something new & different for him. He seemed to have a good time. Also took a tour of the PSE dams on the Baker River above town-- unfortunately the tour was mainly about the fish catching / rearing facilities with very little about the hydro power plants. A little long at over 3 hours, but interesting none the less.