Watsonville Airport Celebrates the Nation’s 250th Birthday

A camera-equippped RV-6 about to be reunited with terra firma. Van’s Aircraft delivered over 2,500 kits for the RV-6/6A.

Watsonville Municipal Airport (KWVI) in California has a rich aviation history and enjoys celebrating aviation with the community during its annual Airport Open House.

Plenty of folks came out to enjoy the airplanes and evening fireworks show at Watsonville Airport (KWVI).

This free community event is usually held on Labor Day weekend, but was moved to July 4 in 2026 to align with the nation’s 250th birthday.

Jan Johnson brought one of her Stinson L-5 Sentinel warbirds to Watsonville, complete with an era-correct 48 star flag. The L-5 was the military version of the Model 105 Voyager and served as the primary observation and casualty-evacuation aircraft for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

This year the star attraction among the static displays belonged to a pristine, polished Douglas A-26 Invader bomber, brought here by Taigh Ramey and the Stockton Field Aviation Museum as a warm-up for their trip to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh later in the month. The A-26 warbird was joined by two others, a privately owned Grumman F8F Bearcat and a Stinson L-5 Sentinel, also from the museum.

This lovely A-26C Invader was brought to the Open House by the Stockton Field Aviation Museum. In mid-2024, the museum acquired this A-26C from the Cactus Air Force Wings and Wheels Museum.

There was a good variety among the 25 or so static display aircraft arrayed on the tarmac.

Aerobatic types were well represented by a Pitts S-1, a Christen Eagle, and a Bellanca Decathlon.

The Rutan Quickie won the “Outstanding New Design” award at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 1978. The forward wing provides approximately 60% of the lift and handles pitch control via full-span elevators, eliminating the need for a traditional horizontal stabilizer.

A Rutan Quickie Q1 was definitely the most unusual, while a Piper Colt and Aeronca Chief caught my eye only because I don’t see very many of them.

A pretty Aeronca 11AC Chief. More than 1,800 of these postwar light aircraft would be built.

The 140 was an all-metal successor to Cessna’s pre-war fabric-covered designs. A contemporary of the fabric-covered Aeronca Chief, the 140 remains desirable for the “all-metal” durability.

Introduced in 1978, the PA-38 Tomahawk was designed by Piper in the late 1970s to compete with the Cessna 150/152 series. The “Traumahawk” nickname stems from early reports regarding its stall/spin characteristics.

California Fish & Game brought a Cessna 185 on floats, which was pretty neat.

The California Fish & Game department’s Cessna Skywagon floatplane provided a backdrop for all these hungry folks lined up for various food vendors. This agency operates seven fixed-wing airplanes and one helicopter, flown by “Warden-Pilots.”

The early evening entertainment started with skydivers delivering Old Glory to show center, followed by the sound of the West Coast Ravens departing in their RV aircraft. The Ravens delivered a nice performance of formation flight maneuvers, starting with two four-ship diamonds and later forming an eight-ship super delta formation in the deepening twilight sky.

An eight-ship formation of homebuilt aircraft soars overhead, courtesy of the West Coast Ravens RV Formation Team.

The West Coast Ravens RV Formation Team have flown formation demonstrations at various events, such as a world record-setting 50-ship formation in 2014 for a NASCAR race.

CAL FIRE was on hand with a trio of airborne assets: A S-70 Firehawk, a S-2 Turbo Tracker, and an OV-10 Bronco. As the sky darkened with a marine layer rolling in, it was time for these folks to return to their nearby Hollister Air Attack Base, providing more aerial activity for the gathered fans.

This CAL FIRE Firehawk was popular with the small ones. This firefighting variant of the military Blackhawk was built by Sikorsky subsidiary PZL Mielec in Poland.

A wave and this crew heads back to base. Starting in 2018, CAL FIRE began acquiring the S-70i Firehawk to replace its aging fleet of UH-1H Super Huey helicopters. The fixed belly tank is capable of dropping 1,000-gallons of water or foam.

CAL FIRE operates 23 of these S-2T Turbo Tracker tanker aircraft. They are capable of carrying up to 1,200 gallons of fire retardant, providing an essential “first strike” capability.

With the flying portion of the show over, all that was left was to wait for darkness to descend and for the fireworks show to take place. Being in July instead of September, it was still fairly light at the appointed time of the fireworks show and the announcer asked for the crowd’s understanding as they pushed the show start out another 15 minutes. The pyro display was worth the extra delay, being quite impressive for a smallish event, though the encroaching low cloud cover diminished the visibility of the higher altitude bursts.

The Watsonvile “Fire in the Sky Open House” in full effect with a shiny Grumman F8F Bearcat reflecting the colors.

The folks perched on top of this Douglas A-26C Invader had a great vantage point for the fireworks show.

A great way to wish a Happy 250th Birthday to America!

Overall, this was a pleasant event that I was happy to have attended and look forward to future ones. It was nice to see the increased number of static displays and more warbirds.

Watsonville Airport was established in 1931, built on land that was formerly a lettuce field. During World War II, the airport was commissioned as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Watsonville and returned to the city in 1947.

For more information: Watsonville.gov

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