This year, Bremerton (KPWT) was one of AOPA’s fly-in destinations. Since I wasn’t able to attend the last fly-in in Spokane, I thought it would be fun to fly up to KPWT and attend the event. I have flown into KPWT numerous times while living in Washington, but getting to fly there from Salem was almost like a 'new’ destination, so I invited couple of fellow aviators to come along and enjoy the adventure. The main event was held on a Saturday, but Jeppesen hosted a BBQ the night before so we decided to fly up on Friday and camp out.
The unique aspect of the AOPA fly-ins is the fact that 100’s of airplanes will be converging on the airport over the two day event. So much so that there is a published NOTAM with special VFR arrival procedures and the normally non-towered airport at Bremerton becomes towered of sort by utilizing an air-boss on a special frequency (not the CTAF frequency) to handle the arriving and departing traffic.
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| VFR Arrival Procedure |
The flight up to KPWT went as planned and after arriving over Olympia, we followed the published procedure for south arrivals. After calling the air boss on the special frequency he instructed us to fly the procedure and after entering the terminal area instructed us to cross midfield and enter a right downwind. There were four airplanes ahead of us in the pattern and probably five more behind. We were given a clearance to land and given a turn-off point for the camping area. After setting up our tents we headed to the main event area for the BBQ and live music. The main stage was in a very large hangar and there were numerous large tents set up for the next day’s activities and vendor exhibits, as well as a static display of vendor’s aircraft. The most notable new airplane was the Piper M600 featuring the Garmin G3000 avionics suite and GFC 700 autopilot.
This airplane also has hypoxia recognition which will automatically command the airplane into an emergency descent to a lower altitude if certain pilot inputs are not given while in the flight levels.
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| Over KPWT (lots of airplanes parked on the closed runway) |
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| Band Setting Up Around the B-17 |
The highlight of the evening was a U2 cover band (fake Irish accent, Bono sunglasses and all ), with an old bomber parked behind the stage for a backdrop.
Saturday started with some entertainment by listening to the airport frequency on my handheld as the air boss managed airplane after airplane as they arrived into the Bremerton area. There must have been 30 planes that landed between 6:30 and 7:30 am. After that, we headed to the pancake breakfast and scored some swag at the vendor tent. The remainder of the day continued with aviation seminars, followed by a pilot’s town hall presented by Mark Baker the president of AOPA.
We decided to return to Salem a little early in order to beat the rush of departures and took the opportunity to fly to Langley (W10) which is one of my favorite $100 destinations in the Puget Sound area. W10 is located on the South end of Whidbey Island and adjacent to the runway is Mukilteo Coffee Roasters which has some off the finest airport food and coffee around. The airport is nestled in the trees with a 2470' x 25’ North/South runway.
After enjoying a latte at the restaurant (and wishing that this place was 25 minutes from Salem), we departed for the one and a half hour flight back to Salem. The flight back was smooth and was able to get a clearance to climb through the Seattle class B airspace which allowed us to fly south over Puget Sound until having to turn toward Olympia in order to avoid the active restricted areas south west of Joint Base McChord. Overall, it was a good trip and recommend to everyone to try and attend an AOPA Fly-in in the future.
