Dreams take flight at inaugural Wings and Wheels show at Kelowna-Okanagan International Airport
A few steps from the track of the Kelowna International Airport is as rare as a rainy day in the Okanagan, but both happened at the inauguration Wings and wheels A show that features rows of classic and imported cars, motorcycles and airplanes.
“You can get up close to the plane, the pilots, talk to them, talk to the people who drive the cars,” Kent Hardisty said, Kelowna Aero Club president.
“Also being airside, people like to come to the airport and just watch the planes take off and land.”
Kelowna’s T-hangars at YLW were packed with hundreds of people, all hoping to get an up-close look at the show designed to help the next generation dream of a career in aviation.
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“I was this little kid sitting in the back of the car looking at airplanes and saying, ‘Someday I hope I can fly,’ and as soon as I joined the military, the first thing they asked me was, ‘What’s your thing?’ I said, ‘I want to fly.’ So I became a pilot after that and I’ve been flying ever since,” said Ariel Tyk, organizer of Wings and Wheels.
“Now, as I look at the little children going by and looking at them, I see myself.”
Tyk is showcasing his Super Petrel flying boat at the event, which shows how far technology has come since the first powered airplane was flown by the Wright brothers in 1903, more than 100 years ago. Sixteen years after that first flight, Andrew Kiesewetter’s 1919 Ford Model T Runabout was built, which he has been caring for for the past three years and drove to the Wings and Wheels show.
“By modern standards it’s horribly dangerous, completely insane to drive because the brakes are dodgy, but incredibly hilarious to drive. It’s such a fun machine to drive,” said Kiesewetter, a member of the Okanagan chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada.
Although the rain deterred a few people from bringing their cars to the event to show them off, there were so many planes, cars and motorcycles on display that the show was spread across two locations. After walking the rows of Hangar T, visitors were invited to KF Aerospace to see the larger planes being restored.
One of the planes on display is the De Havilland Mosquito, a bomber that was one of the fastest planes of World War II. KF Aerospace says there are only 30 of them left in the world and only four are considered airworthy, including the one currently being repaired in Kelowna.
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