In the beginning of September (so half a century ago according to my blogging schedule) we went to the annual airport festival here in my hometown. Yes my little town has an airport, okay it might be more a very small airfield and not so much of an airport. Only small aircrafts can start and land there so there is no issue of noise complaints ever. I was actually checking out just now what kind of airfield it is but the Germans surely got their own laws and regulations which do not even translate into English so I won’t bother you with that! This airfield was a military airport back in WWII and after the war the airport was reduced in size to give way for a new city district which was built for the thousands of refugees arriving here such as my dad back in the day.
Enough of the history and categorization of this so-called airport and let’s get back to the festival. Though I have lived rather long here already before moving to Finland I had never visited this festival. I do not even know for how long this festival exists already except that it must be going on now for at least 8 years. I know that because back then my parents visited the festival as they have a friend, who is flying a glider, invited them. As this festival was right between the time MIL had left us to return to China and my parents return from their 4 month-long holiday we took this opportunity for some family time. From our home it is only 10 minutes by bicycle to the airport which made it very convenient for us to go there on both festival days. As you can imagine it was a very confusing but also exciting event for a 2 1/2-year-old boy! When he saw the first helicopter flying over our heads he went crazy, not as in crazy as everyday MIL, but happily crazy.
On one side of the airfield were several food stalls and the tents of the different companies offering flights in either helicopters, gliders, gyrocopter, historical planes or different light aircrafts. You could also sign up for some parachute jumping but that is not really my thing as I might have some little fear of heights. Most surprisingly for us was that two of our friends were also at the festival and were just preparing for their parachute jump! I bet that the girl would have not jumped if she would have known back then that she was already in her first month of pregnancy. They also provided tons of entertainment for kids with several amusement rides, jumping castles and also a little track for quad driving (small quads with not so much power). In retrospect the quad driving was probably more intended to give the dads some fun while pretending to take care of their kids sitting in front of them.
The whole festival was very interesting as you could see all kind of different planes and other flying vehicles. They also had the Antonow AN-2 flying around which is the biggest operational single-engine biplane. We had plans to take a little tour with a light aircraft but the waiting list was a bit too much for us with its 2-3 hours of waiting time. So in order to let Nathan enjoy his time there we let him have some rounds in the amusement rides. We had the before-mentioned quad ride for him but he clearly did not really care about as he kind of looked depressed in the pictures.
For us it was a nice experience to go to this airport festival. We learned a few things about the different planes, Nathan had lots of fun, it is nearby and best of all the entrance is for free. Next year we will definitely go again and then we will sign up early enough for a flight in one of the planes!
Have you visited something like an airport festival before?
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There have been so many crashes at air shows they terrify me. But I can imagine how much a little boy would love them.
I’d say this festival was more or less safe as there were no air shows with doing some tricks in the air. All the planes there were meant for people to take a tour around the area 🙂
But what about the parachutists? They never jumped?
Oh they jumped but then again last time I checked accidents are not that common. To think just few years ago I would have loved to jump myself and now looking outside a window of a tall building gives me already cold sweat
Looks like a fun time, jumping out of a plane with a parachute is still on our bucket list.
It was also for me on the list for many many years and now I am just too terrified of it, life certainly is weird with its changes
I understand! It is not that high on my list anymore. Gary will have to push me out of the plane. I don’t even like to get on a step ladder anymore :)) Jen
This sounds so cool, airport festival. It must be quite noisy with the helicopters flying overhead. It must be in a very big and wide space, so many things and people flying around. The parachuting sounds very spontaneous, and I’m sure they are all trained professionals. Like you, I am, afraid of heights and probably wouldn’t do it. But if I had a choice to go swimming or parachuting, I would choose jump in the sky – then again, I am probably don’t fit the weight criteria for it, lol.
Nathan looks so happy in the purple Suzuki, yes. Maybe he will be a racecar driver some day 🙂
There are so many festivals and activities there!!
Where are so many festivals and activities? You surely can’t mean my little hometown or even the state we live in 😀
Yes! You are always going to fairs and things like that!!
I never realized that here is much going on as compared to Finland this feels like nothing ever happens 😀
What a lovely day out for Nathan.
It surely was exciting, just too bad we didnt manage to get one of the flights around the area. Next year we have to sign up asap for it 🙂
The festival sounds so cool! I would totally visit it. How nice that it is so near from you – I hope next year you’ll get chance of flying in one of the planes. I am sure it’s going to be fantastic. Nathan seems to be enjoying himself 🙂 I’ve seen something like an airport museum from car somewhere in Poland – maybe near Wroclaw but haven’t visited yet. Airplanes are quite fascinating to me.
I really do wonder why I never visited this event before. When we lived in Finland I also never visited the plane museum nearby the Helsinki airport even though we lived only 18 km away!
I haven’t been to an Airport Festival before and this looks interesting. I am sure kids like Nathan enjoyed it since airplanes & helicopters are part of any childhood. It’s funny sometimes when we make choices of places to go and bring our children,there’s always the factor : would my child enjoy this? or will he behave if we go here?…in the long run, kids learn that they need to fit in as well to the adults world, and we as parents accept that not all the times, our world revolved around them.
Nathan is a jetsetter baby so seeing planes would definitely made his day!looks like you did too..
Having family times like this without MIL is indeed a bonus! Win win!
The airport festival was real fun for him. We did not even know they had all the children enterainment things so it was a real surprise. Even without them we knew somehow that he would love it as he kinda likes all big machines, just like most boys 🙂
We have an aircraft museum in town which I’ve never paid attention to events, etc. I’ve gone to 2 major airshows which were impressive with aerobatic (but dangerous for pilots) manoeuvres.
Glad that you and son really enjoyed yourselves!
I think that I would always worry too much when there are aerobati performances as here in Germany they had back in the day the huge catastrophy at the Ramstein Military base (I know one of the victims who barely can live with all the burns to this date)
Anyways an aircraft museum could be interesting to visit, I for myself never went to the nearby Helsinki aircraft museum and now that I live abroad I would love to go there