Family Fun Day returns to Sonoma Skypark

Sonoma Skypark Airport’s annual Family Fun Day open house will take place on Saturday, Sept. 21. The event, normally held in May, was postponed from last spring due to weather.

At the event, airplanes from aviation’s Golden Age sit next to some of the latest technologically advanced home-built aircraft, with hot rods and antique cars and trucks parked among them. There will be skydiving bingo, biplane rides and much more; admission is free.

Kids can enter the annual paper airplane building and flying contest. The planes are launched from the airport office balcony to see how far they will fly. Pilot Tom Vogt will organize the contestants and judge the flights. Art Escape will be on hand to help contestants make and decorate their entries. According to event organizers, every participant will leave with a balsa glider furnished by the Sonoma Skypark. The young pilots making the three longest flights will win gift certificates from local toy stores.

Family Fun Day includes complementary hamburgers and hot dogs served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. as well as free ice cream from Three Twins Ice Cream. Guests can view the airplanes and automobiles on display from an old-fashioned hayride up and down the flight line on a wagon behind a classic Ford tractor or on the back of a 1925 Ford Model T truck.

There will be a raffle benefiting the Aviation Explorer Post 1268 based at Sonoma Skypark and prizes will include airplane and balloon rides, a tandem skydiving jump and more. Aviation Explorer Post 1268 uses the proceeds to sponsor local youth to attend the EAA Air Academy each summer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, according to Skypark officials.

Skydiving Bingo will be featured with two jumps during the day. A tethered balloon will be up, as well a bounce house, solar baked cookies and a radio-controlled model airplane display, according to a press release about Family Fun Day.

The Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club, or VOMARC, will have a ham radio station set up and operating, with members making contacts with other operators throughout the world. HAM radio club president Jim Hill will demonstrate radio communication from Morse code to computer-based digital modes.

EAA Chapter 1268 gives free airplane rides to Sonoma Valley youth ages 8 to 17 once a month, weather permitting. Nationally, EAA members have donated time and use of their airplanes to fly over 2 million Young Eagles flights. Sonoma Skypark pilots have flown over 2,000 Young Eagles in just over 10 years of the program operation.

Skypark Airport is located at 21870 Eighth St. E.