Belfast Municipal Airport Hosts Annual Fly-In

Airplanes from all across the United States flew into the Belfast Municipal Airport today.

It's all part of their annual open house and fly in.

"Our goal here is to bring the public out the airport so they can see what happens at their airport. It's a municipally owned airport by the town, so the people actually own this airport."

Saturday marked the 3rd Annual Open House and Fly-In at the Belfast Municipal Airport.

A variety of aircraft from around the country flew in for the event.

"We've had airplanes come from all over the country, Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and so they get together. Pilots like to go somewhere for the weekend and the coast of Maine is a beautiful place to fly."

23 planes are based at the airport.

Many of them are used by local business for transportation, while other pilots use them to serve those in need in their community.

"Private pilots donate their plane and their time to fly cancer patients say to Boston for treatment. They do that for free."

For those attending, they get to see the value of a small airport and the many ways it serves not only their community, but those around the country as well.

"These little airports are great and as we've seen on the news with the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, the little airplanes as we like to call them are the only ones getting in and out of those places."

As far as the future of smaller airports, Tomlin says there could be more to come.

"You know these small airports will be around for awhile to serve those community needs and act as a reliever of transportation hub to the bigger airports."

For an airport that originated in the 1940's, it certainly has seen plenty of use in its time.

And events like these help the community come together and learn about the future of aviation.