Falcon Field airport in Mesa had an open house the last weekend in March. We drove across the Valley for a family day. An Army Cobra helicopter was offering rides to paying customers, historical aircraft was on display, and food trucks and bouncy houses rounded out the family fun.

We especially enjoyed the historic restored B-17 that we were able to crawl/walk through. First, Stephen took the boys inside, and then I was able to tour it while Stephen watched the kids. We climbed up a ladder to view the bombardier’s and navigator’s positions in the nose of the plane, and then we viewed the cockpit. Silas climbed up into the top turret, and he especially enjoyed walking through “the dangerous part” (i.e. the open bombay). Next came the radioman’s station and the waist gunner positions. We could see the ball turret and tail gunner position from the outside only, but it was super cool to be inside such a historic aircraft that still flies!

The very next Saturday, we invited some friends along to watch the Luke AFB air show with us. We learned from the last air show that it wasn’t worth it to try to get on base. Instead we set up our chairs and watched from Glendale Ave and Reems Road, giving us a great view of the aerial acrobatics. The Thunderbirds are always an amazing grand finale, but I especially enjoyed the “Tora! Tora! Tora!” re-enactment of Pearl Harbor.

Silas was smitten with the B-17 and even constructed his own out of Lego. He made this video to show Grampy his very own version of the Flying Fortress.