Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Some fun opportunities to see classic jets and other aircraft this weekend in the Howell area.

Classic Jet Aircraft are staging at the Livingston County Spencer J. Hardy Airport on their way to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the country's largest gathering of aircraft.

People are advised if they see any of these aircraft in formation - they are not active military aircraft.

While the ramp area will not be open to the public, the public will be allowed to view the aircraft outside the fence along Grand River.

Ron Staley is a member of the Classic Jet Aircraft Association. It’s a membership organization of pilots and people interested in preserving primarily Cold War-era military jets for use by private pilots. He said about half of the members are former military pilots, while the others are civilians who learned how to fly the aircraft. Staley said they get together several times a year to practice formation flying, safety training, and get new pilots involved.

Every year, the last week of July marks a big air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin known as AirVenture. The weekend before, Staley says they usually organize a fly-in together and get between 12 and 15 jets from across the country to come in to practice. This year, he said they’re hosting it at the Livingston County Airport, where he’s been based for 17 years now.

As for the pilots, two are based locally and others are coming in from Texas, Alabama, Illinois, Georgia, New York, and Switzerland.

The staging event coincides with Saturday’s Community Open House at the Airport. It runs from 11am to 3pm, featuring aircraft displays, new facilities tours, food, and local aviators to meet.

This Friday and Saturday mornings, Staley said if anybody is on Grand River by the old terminal building, they’ll see the jets parked there and they can watch from the far side of the fence. He said they’ll have some people out to chat with visitors, answer questions, and share information about what’s going on.

On Saturday during the open house, Staley said they’ll have some out jets and aircraft parked by the new terminal building so people can get up close and see what the planes look like - noting some are very rare and unique - but “unfortunately, no rides”.

Then weather-permitting Sunday around noon-ish or shortly before, Staley said all of the planes will take off in a formation and head over to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He said the jets are typically traveling around a little over 300mph, and then as they get closer to the airport it’s down to about 250mph but they “move pretty quick and are a lot of fun to fly”.

Staley said the airport has done a great job cleaning up along the fenceline and there’s parking along the service road for the airport so people can park and watch – noting people “might want to bring hearing protection because when you get 12 of these jets fired up at one time, it will be making quite a bit of noise”.

As for air quality, Staley said the hope is that the smoke blows out quickly so they can get some practice in Friday and Saturday morning – ideally, they want to have around five miles of visibility.

Staley added if people happen to notice a white trail of smoke, there’s no cause for alarm. He said a lot of these aircraft fly in airshows and stressed the smoke is not harmful, so people “do not need to be concerned”.

The full interview with Staley is available in the podcast section of our website. That link is provided.