Being steps from the runway at Kelowna International Airport is as rare as a rainy day in the Okanagan, but both happened at the inaugural Wings and Wheels Show, which featured rows of vintage and import cars, motorcycles and airplanes.
“You can get up close and personal with the planes and pilots and talk to them and the people in the cars,” said Kent Hardisty, president of the Kelowna Flying Club.
“Because it’s also an airport at the airport level, people like to come to the airport and just watch the planes take off and land.”
The Kelowna T Hangars at YLW were bustling with hundreds of people, all wanting to get an up-close look at the spectacle designed to fuel the next generation’s dream of a career in aviation.
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“I was the little boy sitting in the back of the car looking at the planes, and I said, ‘One day I hope I can fly.’ And when I joined the military, the first thing they asked me was, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to fly.’ So after that I became a pilot and have been flying ever since,” said Ariel Tyk, organizer of Wings and Wheels.
“Now when I see the little children walking by, I see myself.”
Tyk is showing off his Super Petrel seaplane at the event, which shows how far technology has come since the Wright brothers flew the first successful powered aircraft in 1903, over 100 years ago. Sixteen years after that first flight, Andrew Kiesewetter’s 1919 Ford Model T Runabout was built, which he has maintained for the past three years and drove to the Wings and Wheels show.
“By modern standards it’s terribly unsafe, it’s completely insane to drive because the brakes don’t work, but it’s incredibly fun to drive. It’s such a pleasant car,” said Kiesewetter, who is a member of the Vintage Car Club of Canada Okanagan Chapter.
Although rain prevented some people from bringing their cars to the event to show them off, there were so many planes, cars and motorcycles on display that the show was split between two venues. After navigating the rows in the T-Hangar, visitors were invited to KF Aerospace to see the larger planes being restored.
One of the aircraft on display is the De Havilland Mosquito, a bomber that was one of the fastest aircraft during World War II. According to KF Aerospace, there are only 30 of these left in the world and only four of them are considered airworthy, including the aircraft being repaired in Kelowna.
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