The Dulles Day and Plane Pull took place this past weekend at KIAD. This was my first time attending and it was a blast! I had heard about it, but pulling a very large plane really didn’t have much appeal to me. Some friends from a new flight school based at Manassas Regional Airport were going to be there, so I dug a little deeper and discovered that they were also going to have a car and motorcycle show. Once I look at the Dulles Day website, I knew that I had to attend. And why not? It has everything that I love:
- Airplanes…all makes, models, vintage, military, jets, etc.
- Helicopters…Bussman’s MD500, Blackhawk, and V22-Osprey
- Cars…awesome car show with a wide variety of makes and models
After I parked my 1967 Volkswage Beetle Cabriolet in the designated spot (I got a primo spot on the end where everyone could see it), I walked over and found my friends at Piston2Jet Training and Aviation Solutions. Their DA-20 and DA-40 airplanes were on static display. One of the DA-20’s that I trained in was there and parked right in front of the German Luftwaffe’s massive Airbus A400M. It was definitely a site to see!
The Luftwaffe had the cargo hold of the A400M open with a static display inside, but they were not allowing people into the cockpit. I saw that the door was open that leads to the cockpit, but it was cordoned off. I walked over to check out this massive aircraft and ended up chatting with one of the pilots.
For those of you that don’t know, I speak fluent German, so I threw out a few of my go-to phrases at him that have landed me a few free beers from the locals when I am visiting Germany and I was invited up to the cockpit and before you know it I was sitting in the PIC seat. I found out that the German Luftwaffe flew the A400M and crew over here from their base in Wunstorf near Hannover specifically for the Dulles Day event. This was the highlight of my day!
This is one event that I highly recommend! It has something for everyone. Everyone is very friendly and love to talk with you about their aircraft and some will even allow you to sit in them. And to top it off, my ’67 Beetle won a trophy!
Hope to see you there next year!