Pilots come to Havre for Fly-In Breakfast

Hundreds of people visited the Havre City-County Airport to take part in the Air Fair and Fly-In Breakfast and take their turn flying in a small plane.

The Montana Pilots Association's North-Central Hangar in Havre hosted the event and invited pilots from all over Montana to take part.

Roger Lincoln, a long-time pilot of 60 years and co-owner of MRKT Aviation Fuel in Havre, said the event is specifically designed to get younger pilots-in-training.

"The pilot community is going gray," Lincoln said. "We need a new crop of pilots."

At the breakfast, which was a hearty biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausages and pancakes, kids were given the opportunity to sign up to take a short plane ride around the county. A veteran, expert group of pilots brought out various types of planes to make the trips and entertain the crowd gathered with feats like bowling ball drops, in which a pilot tosses a bowling ball out of an airborne airplane to try and hit a target. There were also candy drops.

Lincoln said the kids' reactions "range the full gamut." Some are silent and scared, with their heads down and waiting for the ride to be over and some are excited and seemingly fearless. However, he said he always asked the kids once they've landed if they liked it and the answer is always affirmative.

Hanger member Matt Miles said more than 100 people got to go up in planes at the Fly-In Breakfast. The event is a long-standing tradition, he said, and this year they got great numbers of people to come out to the airport to participate.

The Fly-In Breakfast has been happening for over 30 years, Kerin Breum said.

"They try hard to entertain the kids," Breum said of the 29 pilots who came to Havre Saturday morning from all over the state, including Fort Benton, Kalispell, Bozeman and Big Sandy. "You want to get them flying."