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Pictures of the day: San Carlos Airport Open House

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Regular contributor Hayman Tam sent in these photos from the third annual Open House June 27 at San Carlos Airport (KSQL) in California. He reports that thousands of residents flocked to the airport for the event.

With gorgeous weather, this one-day event was a great opportunity for the community to interact with many of the airport businesses.

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Young Eagle flights in this aerobatic American Champion Decathlon probably didn’t come close to its +6g and -5g limits.

Children ages 8 to 17 were able to get free airplane rides provided by the Young Eagles program, thanks to the pilots and planes of EAA Chapter 20.

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For $50, folks could experience vertical flight in a Robinson R-44 Raven.

Those wanting a change of pace could pay for ride in a Robinson helicopter, and there were plenty of customers.

More than 20 aircraft were on static display, representing a wide range of types ranging from combat to composite, homebuilt to hovering and aerobatic to antique.

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This lineup spans 63 years of aeronautical progress, from the 1946 Globe Swift to the 2009 Diamond Twin Star.
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This Cessna 195 served in the US Army as the LC-126C performing search and rescue.
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This Great Lakes aerobatic trainer has been in production three times: 1929-1933, 1973-1982, 2011-present.

 

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The Marquart MA-5 Charger is a homebuilt two-place biplane designed to perform mild aerobatics.
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This Beech Super King Air was popular all day. The Super King Air family has been in continuous production since 1974.

 

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The Cessna 140 was a postwar design featuring aluminum covered wings, produced from 1949-1951.
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The very first low-wing, two-place, retractable-gear civil aircraft, the Globe Swift was in production from 1946 to 1951 with over 1,500 built.
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The BT-13 Valiant provided basic trainer experience to new pilots during WWII, all were replaced with the AT-6 Texan by the end of the war.
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Designed by Curtis Pitts and first flown in 1944, the Pitts S-2C is the current factory built model.
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The BD-5 homebuilt first flew in 1971, with thousands of kits and plans sold before the company went bankrupt in the mid 1970’s.
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The Beechcraft T-34A Mentor served with the Argentine Air Force.

Several aircraft opened up their cockpits to visitors and lines quickly formed all over the tarmac. One popular exhibit was a Vietnam veteran UH-1 Huey helicopter flown in by the folks at HueyVets.com.

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This Huey wears the colors of the 135th Assault Helicopter Company, a unit composed of both U.S. Army and Royal Australian Navy personnel.

The show had more than aircraft on display. San Carlos firefighters and California Highway Patrol were also on display with vehicles and equipment. There were raffles, a scavenger hunt and food vendors.

One of eight general aviation airports in the greater Bay Area, San Carlos Airport is located approximately 12 miles south of San Francisco International Airport. Originally called the San Carlos Flying Field, built during World War I, it was acquired by San Mateo County in 1957.

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Comments

    • John – One of my early assignments in Reno was to work with the National Guard on the display of a Huey at its Stead Airport facility. A wonderful learning experience, and now, years later, learning of hueyvets.com. GA’s surprises never end!

  2. It was indeed a great day and we look forward to returning in 2016. The aircraft on display actually spanned 79 years as the Great Lakes was born in 1930!

  3. Congratulations, KSQL, on a wonderful, well-attended event. Especially great to see activities geared (no pun intended!) toward young men and women, the next generation of potential GA professionals and supporters. A lot of GA people and airports have these events, more than too many of the general public realize. We need to do more, and get the word out, whenever and wherever we can.