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Children fly high with annual Air Fair

The North Central Hangar of the Montana Pilots' Association held its annual Air Fair Saturday at the Havre City-County Airport, with many people coming out to see the planes and the hangar, go on flights and eat breakfast.

The event had 12 members of the pilots' association, along with 10 Lion Club members who were the cooking staff, organize the event, and throughout the morning they flew 75 kids and fed about 250 people.

Lions Club member Ray Toth said it was a great event with many people coming and having a great time. The Lions Club has been assisting with the event for around eight years, Toth said, with the club cooking the breakfast, adding that they got involved because a few of the members of the Lions Club are also members of the North Central Hangar.

Before, he said, the pilots tried to cook breakfast and organize the flights, running the whole show, but then decided to let the Lions Club help.

John Anderson, master of ceremony for the event and hangar association member, said the association had three planes giving rides for the event, flown by Willie Hurd, Darren Huestis and Justin Miller, and the weather that day was perfect. He said that the association has been doing this event since the 1990s.

Everyone seemed to be having fun and enjoying the food, Anderson said. He added that it is great to bring the community to the airport fly-in and let them know what is going on there. The Havre City-County Airport is an important part of the city, Anderson said, with UPS, BNSF, the air ambulance service all using the airport and others.

Eva and Avery Richmond were at the event with their father, Ben.

Ben Richmond said that his daughters were very excited to be able to ride this year because, previously, they were too short to do so. He added that every day they see planes fly over their home, and his girls were looking forward to seeing their home from a bird's eye view.

The airport is important to the town, he said, the tickets through Cape Air are cheap and the air service makes transportation easy. He said he previously did not want to buy a ticket because he thought it was too expensive. Then he bought one and now thinks more people should utilize the air service and support their community.

Eva and Avery said they had fun flying Saturday at the fly-in when the plane was really high and that it was cool to see everything in that perspective.

Eva also said the breakfast was really good and after discussing it with her sister agreed that the pancakes were the best and asked their father if they could have more.

They all agreed that they would like to come back next year for the event.

Andrew Johnson and his son Atsá also attended the event. Andrew Johnson said that they wanted to come out last year but had missed it and came this year to support the pilots' association and the Lions because they do a great job and do really well with the kids.

Atsá said it was awesome - he was able to see the whole town, listing off the mall, Kmart, Walmart and his school, although he added that they all looked the same, just smaller. He said flying was fun, like a roller coaster, and he would do it again.

He said this was his second time ever on a plane, the first time, though, he was a baby and could not remember seeing much.

Andrew Johnson said Havre is a great place for a family.

"The great thing about Havre is that we are bonded together with friendship, home life and a family-friendly environment," Johnson said.

The hangar association listed some of the recent work on the airport construction project including rehabilitation of the parallel taxiways that were last worked on in 1994; reconstruction of the taxi lanes around the T-hangar that were last worked on in the mid-1980s, and installation of a new segmented circle and lighted windsock.

The extent of the project includes 28,000 square yards of pavement removal; 8,000 cubic yards of excavation; 8,000 cubic yards of new crushed base course; 7,000 tons of new asphalt; 45 new taxiway lights, and 4,000 feet of new cable and conduit.

 

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