Just Plain Mesmerizing About 14,000 Visitors Inspect Aircraft At Fairchild Air Force Base

The roar of the jets and the scribbles of smoke in the sky were too much for Jim Nollmeyer to resist.

So he played hooky from his plants to soak up the planes.

Admitting he should have been home seeding barley, the Reardan, Wash., farmer succumbed to a more powerful force: Aerospace Day.

Almost 14,000 people attended the show Sunday at Fairchild Air Force Base, which this year celebrated the Air Force’s 50th anniversary.

“I love the planes - just because of the aeronautics and the power and the flames and the noise,” gushed Nollmeyer after watching an F-16 Viper shoot into the sky and corkscrew into a triple spin as gracefully as a world-class figure skater.

“Every guy - well, most - would love to have something like that,” Nollmeyer said as the fighter landed smoothly on the trembling tarmac.

Visitors at the seven-hour exhibition were greeted by a C-5B Galaxy transport plane. Unlike other aircraft on display, the plane’s cargo area and cockpit were opened up to wide-eyed kids and adults.

With its nose flipped open, the hulking cargo plane looked like an angry dinosaur waiting for a meal. That meal can consist of up to 840,000 pounds of equipment and fuel, said Capt. Dave Pavey.

“People want to know what a plane this size carries,” he said, watching an endless stream of visitors climb the 10-foot ladder above the cargo area into the cockpit.

The plane can carry President Clinton’s entire motorcade.

“Fly all the limos,” Pavey said.

“Or eight Cobra attack helicopters or five or six elephants and all their food.”

The plane also provided the show’s only shade. A row of spectators set up folding chairs beneath the giant wings, craning their necks to watch helicopters and fighters turn the sky into a white sizzle of smoke and exhaust.

At ground level, exhibitions were overrun by children and their parents, many of whom stopped at two hangars to refuel on hot dogs, pop, coffee and cookies.

Others gathered around a display of new jet engines. Weighing in at just 5,000 pounds, they are capable of generating 22,000 horsepower.

Nearby, Fairchild civil engineer Jerry Johnson handed out tiny ponderosa pines to visitors. “We take care of the land that isn’t runway or buildings - 300 acres of forest and wetlands,” he said.

Johnson also is an air-traffic controller of sorts. Members of his crew are using falcons - instead of guns - to scare away ducks, pigeons and red-tailed hawks that pose a collision threat to planes at the base.

Another hangar housed a display of police cars from all over Eastern Washington and North Idaho, including Cheney, Kennewick and Coeur d’Alene.

“Well, they don’t fly,” said Cheney policeman Steve Kelly as children climbed in and out of his cruiser. “But the Air Force invited us out, and here we are.

“A lot of the kids don’t care whether it’s a police car or an airplane,” he said.

“The planes are rad,” said Steven Daschbach, 11, as he slipped into the driver’s seat of Kelly’s white cruiser.

“But I like sitting in the police car better because you get to play with all the lights and push all the buttons. They don’t let you do that in the planes.”

Teresa Cuevas ignored the cars. She stopped to talk to Canadian Air Force Capt. Brehn Eichel, who was wearing his flight uniform - except for a pair of black cowboy boots.

“I’ve always had a cool appreciation of planes,” said Cuevas, 14. “Our class at Centennial Middle School had a unit on aviation and space.”

Cuevas spent Sunday inspecting the hardware.

“I went and looked at the B-52 and looked underneath and saw where the bombs are held.

“I kind of want to join the Air Force. I want to go up there,” she said, pointing at a trail of smoke in the sky.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo