High-flying fun

MOSES LAKE — The 2024 Moses Lake Airshow is set for June 15 and 16 at the Grant County International Airport and will be featuring a range of activities for attendees, including aircraft performances and two competitions new to this year’s event. 

Airshow Organizer and founder Terry Quick highlighted some of the key aspects of this year’s event.

“We've got some of the same planes coming back. We've got some new guys, some exciting acts, and that's all fun,” he said. “Then we've got all kinds of displays. We've got a mobile military museum coming in. We've got a virtual reality thing that's put on by the Air Force where you can come in and fly planes … It's free for the kids to mess with. We've got some other activities, STEM activities, where kids can go in there and build airplanes and do all sorts of stuff.”

New this year will be the fourth leg of the 2024 National Short Take-Off and Landing Championship Series.

“This is part of a national tour, kind of like pro golf, where they have tournaments around the country,” Quick said, “and then these pros come in and they compete for prizes and points for a national standing at the end of the year.

Quick said the STOL competition will be a first for Moses Lake. 

“It started in Alaska with the bush pilots, where there weren't landing strips. They were landing in fields and meadows up in the mountains, and then they would come back and brag about who managed to land in the shortest space or take off,” Quick said. “So they put a contest together down in Valdez, (Alaska) and that's kind of where it all started. That was back in the 70s … Some of these guys can take off and land at about 50 feet, so it's pretty exciting.”

Another first is the World Remote Control Invitational, a competition for model planes.

“We're having the first, as far as I know, the first North America Invitational. It's an international invitational RC air show,” he said. “We have 10 pilots bringing approximately 20 planes, and five of those pilots are world champions, so it's a big deal. If you've never seen it, it's not your brother's model airplane.”

Quick said the airshow is trying its best to make the event affordable for everybody.

“General admission tickets are $50 but it allows one adult and as many kids (age) 15 and under as you want to throw in the car,” he said. “We've tried, wherever possible, to use local vendors, but we've got a lot of food trucks and outside vendors coming in.”

The airshow has grown significantly since Quick founded it in 2019.

“It has become a regional air show in the Pacific Northwest. It's been growing at a rate of about 20 plus percent per year, and we are on track to exceed that amount,” he said. “80% of my attendees drive more than 50 miles to get there, and of that 37% last year drove more than 100 miles. We sold tickets in 22 states, including Alaska and Hawaii and British Columbia and Alberta.”

Quick said he expects this growth to continue this year.

“Last year we had about 10,000 people, which is roughly 40% of the total population of Moses (Lake),” he said. “This year we are expecting closer to somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000, so it's definitely a plus. I talked to one of my hotels that is working with us for putting up the crews and so forth, and they are sold out … There's nothing else (going on), so if the hotels are already sold out a week and a half out, we’ve got to be doing something right, and I'm sure that the local businesses are benefiting.”

Quick said the first airshow in 2019 had around 4,000 to 5,000 attendees that year. 

“Going forward, we've got our fingers crossed that maybe in the next year or two we'll get one of the national or the big jet teams like the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds, or maybe the Snowbirds out of Canada,” he said.

Quick said that the airshow is trying something else new: an increased social media presence and a larger social media campaign.

“We're trying to attract a younger audience, because air shows traditionally have been supported by ex-military, and they're aging out,” he said.

Quick explained his favorite part of the airshow.

“I think that the fun part for me is watching the kids, the sense of wonder, and it's really interesting,” he said. “It's partly why I brought in RC air show. You get the families out there and kids 10 and under, they wander along and they see the RC planes on static display and they get excited about those.”

Quick reflected on how the event has grown in the last few years.

“Overall, we've done very well,” he said. “I think with the way things are going, I'm very pleased.”

For more information on the event and ticketing options, visit moseslakeairshow.com.

Moses Lake Airshow 2024

June 15 and 16
Grant County International Airport
7810 Andrews St NE, Moses Lake
Tickets: $50
15 and under free with adult

Schedule:
Saturday & Sunday
Gates Open: 7:30 a.m.
National STOL Series: 8 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
World RC Invitational - 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies - 12 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Performances - 12:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Gates Close - 6 p.m.

    A World War II-era F4U Corsair, center, flies over the 2023 Moses Lake Airshow in the company of two F-18s.
  

    Visitors to the airshow enjoyed a wide range of snacks as they checked out various airplanes on display at the 2023 Moses Lake Airshow.
  

    Stephen Christopher and Todd Rudberg of Undaunted Airshows perform during the 2022 Moses Lake Airshow. This year’s event will see military aircraft, stunt pilots and more fly over the Moses Lake area.
  

    Todd Wursten demonstrates his ability to fly his custom-built MXR — he would climb and then “lose control” and tumble only to quickly resume flying — during the first day of the 2022 Moses Lake Airshow on Saturday.