Castle Air Force Base was closed in 1995 after having been home to the 93 Bombardment group for a number of years . It received the first production B-52 bomber and was home to B-52s for approximately 40 years. It was originally opened as a base in September 1941 as Merced Army Air Field. It was renamed after General Castle who as a pilot died flying his burning bomber while giving his crew time to bail out before the plane exploded. Since the base closing the field has for the previous 18 years been host to the Castle Giant Scale Fly In. May 26-29, 2016 marks the 19th holding of this annual event. It attracts over 100 pilots annually and only giant size planes are allowed to fly during the open hours of the event.
This year RC Groups sent me to the event to take some pictures and give a bit of the feel of the event. The fly In is held on the very north end of the field and dos not interfere with flight operations on the main runway as the field is still open for general aviation flights. The event is held on Memorial weekend and with the large gathering of giant planes gets a huge crowd of spectators on Saturday and Sunday. Starting late on Wednesday afternoon the area become an RV village for the weekend.
The hosts were friendly. The cost for parking for one day was only $5.00 and otherwise the event was free. Some vendors were onsite and added to the fun of visiting the event. There is also an air museum on the former base property and is worth a visit if you are ever driving through California's Central Valley as it is just a few miles off of highway 99 in the town of Atwater. I hope you enjoy the pictures taken Friday, May 27, 2016.
Set up in streets the most desired positions are on the flight line but none are from from the field.
Last edited by Michael Heer; May 28, 2016 at 07:22 AM..
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Never heard of this event till now.
Thank you. Sounds like I need to plan a trip. |
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Thanks for the great photos !
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There was a guy there making a video which he sells. Anybody remember his name or the name of his video company? I couldn't find it on the web, but I think he shows up at various events.
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they're having an event starting today and runs for four days 2017
https://www.rcflightdeck.com/mobilea...?event_id=6342 |
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