Never too early to plan our summer destinations so I thought I would put in a plug for a couple of local Flyins that I try to make every year. One is at the Concrete WA airport which is a great little strip located in the foothills at the gateway to the North Cascade Mountains. It's a beautiful spot if the weather is good (usually is) with plenty of grass to camp on next to your plane. The dates are July 22-24. Saturday is the big day with a lot of arrivals Friday afternoon. http://vintageaircraftmuseum.org/calend ... es-fly-in/

Orcas Island (ORS) is the other one two weeks later August 5th - 7th. There's never a bad time to make a trip to the San Juan Islands, but it's especially fun during the Orcas Flyin. This is not back country flying by any means but it is always a lot of fun to visit the San Juan's with air strips on all the islands. Once again Saturday is the day with the most action with lots of folks flying in to camp Friday evening. If you come in Friday evening be sure to join us at the big hangar party (you can't miss it) next to the taxiway. Plenty of camping spots on the grass with a easy walk into the village of Eastsound. http://www.visitsanjuans.com/events/eas ... e-car-show

My wife, kids and I plan on camping and attending both of these. Missed them both last year, smoked out at Concrete and can't remember what conflict I had on the ORS weekend. Actually,we probably won't camp the ORS one, my Dad lives there and we'll probably stay at his place. Either way, we're looking to mix up the backcountry strip camping with a couple of fly-ins this year, and these two are on the list.

Might make it to the Hood River Oregon fly-in as well, I haven't been to that one in years.

I hope to meet up with you and others that plan on attending, we'll stay in touch!

Concrete and Orcas are the two best camp-over fly-ins in the Puget Sound area.
Orcas seems to have been declining the last few years, but Concrete just keeps on getting bigger and better.
Both beat the "big" Arlington fly-in hands down IMHO.
Not really a fly-in per se, but there's always a good gathering of vintage aircraft and plenty of warbirds on Labor Day weekend at Historic Flight Foundation's annual event on Paine Field KPAE.
This year, there's gonna be an AOPA fly-in at Bremerton KPWT Aug 19 & 20. I suspect it'll be more like Arlington than Concrete, with lots of vendor displays & seminars.

For those interested in a flyin on the east side remember the Tonasket Fathers day flyin. Camping at Tonasket or Fowler Field 6 miles East of there. For information........ [email protected]

[quote="hotrod180"]Concrete and Orcas are the two best camp-over fly-ins in the Puget Sound area.
Orcas seems to have been declining the last few years, but Concrete just keeps on getting bigger and better.
Both beat the "big" Arlington fly-in hands down IMHO.

Agree. Arlington is just a big vendor fest IMHO. Concrete probably fits the term "Flyin" the best. Small airstrip up in the foothills surrounded by mountains next door to a small country town. Nobody trying to sell you a bunch of junk. Just a bunch of fly boys (and girls) gettin together to watch all the planes come and go. It just has that feel. There's even a pancake breakfast in the high school next to the airport.

Yeah, the local Lions or Rotary put on the pancake feed at the school. Two or three years ago there was some plumbing repair going on there so they didn't do it, and unfortunately I guess they decided it was more trouble than it was worth so they haven't done it since. Didn't seem to make sense, as they were always busy, and if they weren't making enough money they coulda just bumped the price (only five bucks!) up a little. A real shame, I always enjoyed that part of the fly-in.

Orcas has something similar, there's a Saturday morning pancake feed at the adjacent firehouse put on by the fire dept to raise money. Always a long line and a full house, again a part of the fly-in I really enjoy.

HR180 will you be organizing the informal BCP section? Never been to Concrete, but looks fun.

Tonasket would be great, but Fathers Day is really Mothers Day part II at my house... We bought our Mooney from a guy in Tonasket.

The Republic fly-in is supposed to be good also, got cancelled last year because of smoke.

Rod

This one is also a "don't" miss:

http://www.waaamuseum.org/events-classes/fly-in

Cervelorod wrote: HR180 will you be organizing the informal BCP section? Never been to Concrete, but looks fun. ....

Not me, I can hardly organize a lunch fly-out with a couple other pilots (that darn Flyhound...... )
Besides which, the beauty of a true grass-roots type fly-in to me is the lack of organization. The vintage museum guys at Concrete usually try to get all the antiques parked together near the museum on the NE corner of the airport, but most of the people I know just park along the south side of the runway. Better view of arriving aircraft there, and better camping, plus easier in-and-out.
Concrete's a goody-- unlike other fly-ins (notably Arlington) which seem to be fading out, it just seems to keep getting bigger. In recent years, the whole airport fills up with airplanes- to the point that a guy flying in late had better try to eyeball a parking spot from the pattern.