A special kind of evening on the water

[GFC]

Every year the Tri Cities, WA holds the Water Follies. It's a weekend of fun highlighted by racing of the Unlimited Hydroplanes and an air show that involves several different airplanes.

The hydroplanes start arriving in the area on Wednesday and do public appearances for a day or two before heading for the pits on the Columbia River.

The airplanes start showing up on Friday and do a couple of short airshows to spike the public interest. The pilots fly out of our local airport and are hosted at a variety of events around town.

One of those is sponsored by our yacht club and members take the pilots, crews and the administrative people for an evening cruise on the Columbia.

This year we said we would participate and we ended up hosting the administrative staff. They boarded the boat around 7:30 p.m. and we shoved off soon after.

We cruised about 7.5 miles upriver, watched the sun set, then turned around and headed back to the club to drop everyone off. Needless to say, a good time was had by all involved.

Here are a few photos from the evening. The temp was near 100* when we left the dock, no clouds, no wind, just a lot of fun.

Here's the group we had on board.

Good night, sun

When we got back to the club there was a party going on the dock so after we said our goodbyes to the guests we stuck around to share in the fun.

 

[kartracer]

WOW!!! What a great time that must be boating, racing, airplanes and new friends.

 

[Star0210]

Beautiful sunset...looks like a great day! Good for you!

 

[Pgitug]

Stay away from the Hanford radioactive water discharges. ?

 

[dhmeissner]

Wonderful pics, water looks calm. Thanks for sharing.

 

[GFC]

Most times when we set out to do something nice we build Good Karma. We don't know it at the time we make the plans, and some times it doesn't come back to us for awhile, but it's always there.


I didn't know it at the time but when we had the administrators from the air show on board, my Admiral was talking with Matt Poe, one of the people who was in charge of the show. She commented about how much the grand kids would like to see the planes so Russ invited us to come out this morning to see them. This was not a "scheduled event" as part of the Water Follies but turned out to be a private show arranged just for us.


We met them at the airport at 9:45 and were given a walking tour of the hangar, met one of the pilots and got to look at several of the planes. To say that the kids appreciated it would be a serious understatement.


Here are some of the photos I took:
We met them at Bergstrom Aircraft, a privately owned commercial flight ops business. Here's their office:

This Cessna CJ3 was parked outside their office. I don't know whose 3 rug rats those are. Nice plane:

On the way to another hangar we passed by these planes that were flown by Canadian pilots:

and this jet powered team:

and their transport van:

Here's Brad Wursten, the guy who owns the organization that puts on the air shows all around the country with the plane he flies. This plane is made from 100% composite and weighs only 1200lbs:

Brad with the three little pigs:

More plane photos:

These guys put on a demonstration of a rescue, dropping the rescue swimmer into the Columbia River then bringing him up in a gurney.

After the guided tour Russ and his wife gave the kids wrist bands, autographed photos, t-shirts and key chains. The kids loved all of that stuff but what they really liked was getting to see the airplanes up close and to be able to touch them and meet a pilot. Your personally guided tour will be remembered by the kids and their parents long after the memories of watching the boats go around in circles.


So to Russ and his wife, thank you very much for the tour. I hope we see you again next year on our boat.

 

[kartracer]

Do not know who the rats are for but that is my Lear 35!!!! I WISH LOL