Harvest Festival 2022 Open House Report

Successful Harvest Festival Open House

Despite some rather dreary weather, on Saturday 9/10, we held a very successful “Open House”. Since this event was open to the public and advertised in the Arvada Press, cancelling (for any reason) really was not an option. As such, a rather small, but enthusiastic and talented group of people made the trek to the fields and made this event a great success.

Brian Gates, our new Chief Flight Instructor, had a half dozen of our instructors and club trainers ready and waiting at the West field. Without fail, and very promptly at around 10 am (just as the rain was subsiding), he had his first customers. Others followed, and there were nearly a dozen people that took and “introductory” training flight. Thanks to Brian, Mike, Mark, Dan and John for being there and helping out. It was also nice to see our full fleet of Aeroscout trainers present and ready for service. Apologies if I forgot anyone.

The Airshow at the East field was equally successful. There may have only been a dozen or so spectators, but they were treated to a great variety of planes, heli’s and jets, and some excellent flying and static demo’s. As previously mentioned, the weather broke right around 10 am and that is when things got into gear. Each pilot took their turn with great skill and precision, providing an exciting and impressive show. Thanks again to all the guys that braved the ominous weather forecast and didn’t let us down. Many thanks to Ken, Clark, Jamie, Steve, Brian B. (who came all the way from Winter Park), Mark, Patrick, Michael K., Brian D. and our ever-present videographer Jeff. BTW… you can view much of the show on Jeff’s YouTube channel (Jeff Leasure), and please subscribe. Again, I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but please know we are still very grateful to everyone.

Arvada Harvest Festival 2013

The Arvada Harvest Festival is an entire weekend of activities starting Friday evening and running through Sunday afternoon (9/6 – 9/8) put on and sponsored by the Arvada Jaycees. There is a parade held Saturday morning with well over 100 entries consisting of schools, businesses, clubs, and other organizations from the Arvada area. The Arvada Associated Modelers is proud of our affiliation with the city of Arvada, the Arvada Parks and Recreation Department, and the Arvada Jaycees Harvest Festival.

In support of these efforts, we are honored to enter a float in the parade each year along with sponsoring and putting on a free air show at our airpark Saturday afternoon for over 700 people. Not only does the air show bring in flyers from up and down the entire Front Range and provide drawings for free giveaways, but the Arvada Fire Department brought a truck to spend the afternoon visiting with people and, again this year, Flight-for-Life stopped by with their helicopter to greet and meet area residents. Three of the most popular events are always the candy drop from R/C planes, flight simulators for everyone to try, and the “You Can Fly Too” program that gives kids a chance to fly a R/C trainer with one of our instructors.

Photo credits: Lee Jay Fingersh

Additional photos can be found here.