Carson City Airport celebrates annual Open House

The heat didn’t hinder too many, as hundreds visited at the Carson City Airport for its annual open house event Saturday.

There patrons could explore various vendor booths, watch demonstrations from local organizations and of course look at dozens of airplanes at the airport.

“This sounded like a fun event,” Janet Barbieto, a Younique vendor at the event, said. “I was surprised by how much stuff there was here to do. My husband like to fly model planes, so it was a great event.”

Organizations from all over Northern Nevada attended this free event, including representatives from Make-A-Wish Foundation and various veteran support groups.

Many of the booths featured interactive activities for kids and adults to participate in.

Four-year-old Bella Madore and 8-year-old Monse Bethamcourth both enjoyed getting to build different creations at the Home Depot booth.

“It was fun, I liked riding in the little plane and my favorite was building things,” Bethamcourth said. “I built a tic tac toe thing and got to put Despicable Me stickers on.”

The open house also had several scheduled demonstrations and shows for patrons, including robot shows, model airplane flights, fly overs, and a bite dog demonstration by the Carson City Sheriff’s K9 unit.

Deputy Josh Chaney put on the bite suit to show the audience what it would look like to have a police dog bite a suspect. The emcee described it as “shark week on land.” Attendees young and old enjoyed seeing the demonstration with “oohs” and “ahs” erupting from the crowd, and many thought Chaney put on a humorous show.

“Daddy looks like a puffy marshmallow,” said Chaney’s daughter Bella.

The main focus however, stayed on the airplanes, with dozens put out on the runway for patrons to view, explore and possibly buy. Planes ranged from small biplanes to antique war planes to large military carriers. “My favorite part is seeing all these Air Force planes,” Lily Brown said. “My dad would take me to air shows in California so I enjoyed seeing it (here). It was cool to see.”