The Best Seaplane Event In The World

This weekend, the Washington Seaplane Pilots Association has a fly-in. It's the annual fly-in on Priest Lake at Tanglefoot Seaplane Base. We have probably 50 planes expected to come in and 235 people registered. It'll be a lot of fun. Just before that, we're headed to my friend Chase's ranch. He has a beautiful ranch, more than 7,000 acres, 7,500-foot runway that we'll see paved with numbers and lights and we'll be hanging out there for a couple days. And hopefully my brother will be flying in to hang out tomorrow as well. 7-7-9 or Delta Whiskey. Delta Whiskey, okay, I'm roger. 0-9 Delta Whiskey, what altitude do you climb it up to? We're going to do a slow climb. Forward gear down. Beautiful. This concludes our non-stop service from Renton to Flying Dose of Ranch. Chase is one of my closest friends and his ranch is insane. 7,000 acres, a 7,500-foot runway, and a massive hangar packed with planes, side-by-sides, and dirt bikes. Honestly, this place deserves its own video and I might have to do a full feature on the ranch. My brother showed up not long after we landed and of course, the first thing we did was go out and shoot at the range. We spent the night there and then went off to Tanglefoot. Water landing. Gear is up for water landing. Gear is up for water landing. Visually confirmed. Tanglefoot, Airbus 121.8. Marquette, it's Tanglefoot ramp here. Welcome to Tanglefoot. You're number one for the ramp. You're going to come up the ramp to the Marshall and take a left and pick up the second Marshall. The Washington Seaplane Pilot Association has a vibrant community of pilots who come together for the Tanglefoot annual fly-in. People fly in on their seaplanes, hang out by the lake, and enjoy the vibe together. This whole event is thanks to Lowell Fenwick and Olsen Fenwick. They live here and host us every year. It's become the family-friendly adventure spot for seaplane pilots. There's great music, company, and it's all at this phenomenal location. Can I keep my hat on? Yes. Please do that. Thank you for having us here at your home and your seaplane base. We've now been holding the annual splash-in for the Washington Seaplane Pilot Association here for many, many years. I'd love to learn a little bit about the history of the seaplane base, your vision for it. We came here in 1988 and we had a seaplane. We had a mallard, and we had a goose, and we had a lake renegade. We thought that this would be a really quiet, nice little place for us to have our airplanes. There was no visions of having a place that people would be interested in visiting. But during that time, I think we'd just gotten the Albatross. And so that meant that we had to put in a ramp out of the water that was large enough for that airplane. That made us fairly unique, I'm told, because apparently there are not many places on the West Coast where Albatrosses and PBYs can come out of the water. We met Dennis Buin, who was well-known as a man who was able to restore Albatrosses. And after the ramp was there, he asked if he could bring a friend. And the friend brought another, I think, five Albatrosses. We had six Albatrosses, I think. They all enjoyed it a lot, and we enjoyed the company very much because it gets kind of quiet and lonely out here. And then as time went by, the reality began to sink in that this wasn't going to go away. And so we may as well get a little organized about it if we're going to have all these people coming along. We were introduced to an entirely different form of civilization. That's a seaplane, a seaplane pilot, who is very different. How so? They're very different because they're adventurers. They're looking for adventure. They're looking for opportunities to discover new places. They're looking for the ability to go where others haven't been. If you don't have a seaplane, you have what is known as a sinker. So if you have a sinker, you are restricted generally to pieces of concrete. And there was very little room for adventure or uniqueness in that. But when you're flying seaplanes, it takes you to the most beautiful places in the world. And there's no end to it. There are hundreds, there are thousands of lakes and rivers and places to adventure in the United States. It's the best country in the world for seaplane flying. And the best part of that is right here. We're in the Pacific Northwest where we have at least 100 seaplane places nearby. We can adventure for years to come without going to the same place twice. Today's Saturday. It's the second day of the Washington Seaplane Pilots Association fly-in. And we just went to Mosquito Bay, which is a sandy beach at the north end of Priest Lake with a whole bunch of airplanes. And people are coming back from lunch to start the evening program. Welcome to Spokane International. It was a great adventure. Lots of cool planes. And there will be a lot more where that's coming from, so stick around.