Several dozen aircraft are expected to participate in a three-day, nine-city tour that will come through Rooks County on Thursday and Colby and Salina on Friday.
The 2016 Fly Kansas Air Tour lifts off from Wellington on Sept. 29 for the third consecutive year of the event, which is designed to promote Kansas aviation. Anyone is invited to visit their local airport during tour stops to view the airplanes up close, talk to the pilots and learn about Kansas aviation, according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Participating airplanes are expected to arrive at the Rooks County airport at 1:15 p.m. and depart at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
They will arrive at the Colby airport at 11:40 a.m. Friday and depart at 1 p.m. They are scheduled to land at Salina Regional Airport at 3:15 p.m. Friday. The pilots will spend the night in Salina and take off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday
The goal of this year’s tour, presented by the Kansas Commission on Aerospace Education and the Kansas Department of Transportation, is to raise awareness of the importance of community airports and promote aviation to young people, according to the KDOT news release.