Orting Valley Flyers aka the "No Club Club...": 2012 Zillah Big Bird Opener!

It's taken me almost a week to recover from the incredible weekend at Ben's Field in Zillah, WA. I was fortunate to make it out there for the Spring Big Bird Opener and all I can say is what an event! Located on the other side of the Yakima Valley, the YVAM boasts a 400ft paved runway with just as much runoff on either side. Be warned, the sun comes up early! This shot was at 5:15AM but I couldn't be more pleased with the field or weather.

It's rare you find a field with a paved strip, plenty of soft grass, utilities, and unlimited sky, but I found them all in one place. For the pure spectators there's also elevated parking on the hill, best view of the valley by far!

And now for the good stuff, the planes! The Spring Opener attracts all types from all over the Pacific NW. Giant scale aerobats, warbirds, jets, helis, pylons, flying lawnmowers and more flock by the hundreds. Here's a few of my favorites (that I didn't bring.) I didn't get as many pcitures as I'd like since I spent most of my time flying...

You better believe I came well equipped for the long weekend. I was lucky enough to borrow a trailer so I packed it with everything I could! Tough to see but there's 9 planes, 4 gallons of fuel, 5 gallons of smoke, a sample of every prop Xoar makes (for show and tell), and more batteries than I care to admit to.

Nothing like flying with your buds! The Huckfest 3 musketeers (SupaTim, Dirty Low Dave, and Matt-tastic) laid down another great session of follow the leader for the Saturday noontime demo. JetMan Joe and Vitter made a cameo and little did they know they were "volunteered" for noontime demos as well, in true 3D Flashmob fashion they didn't fail to wow the crowd! Joe saw 162mph on one pass on his EDF jet, not bad for a maiden! Poor Vic stunned the crowd with the biggest Electric plane most of they'd ever seen and was forced to answer the endless "how big, how much, how fast...)