Open House Event Returning To Perkins Field Airport

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A time-honored tradition is returning to Perkins Field Airport in Overton. A free Airport Open House event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 23 from 9 am to 2 pm. And it will, once again, feature a Young Eagles Rally where kids ages 8-17 can take an actual flight over Moapa Valley for free.

The event is being planned by Perkins Field Flying Club, a group of local aviators who have gotten together to make flying out of Perkins Field more accessible to locals.

“A group of us got together and purchased a plane for the club to use,” said charter club member Tim DeBerardinis who is coordinating the Airport Open House event. “There are seven owners in the airplane and now about 12 members in our club.”

DeBerardinis said that one of the goals of the club is to “light a fire in youth for aviation.” DeBerardinis had heard about the Airport Open House events that had taken place at Perkins Field several years ago organized by former Moapa Valley resident Mardell Haskins. DeBerardinis decided to contact Haskins to begin to rekindle those efforts.

“I told her our plans and ideas and she shared a ton of information with me,” De Berardinis said. “I presented all of that to the club and we decided to move forward with it.”

The Open House event will be a full expo of activities at Perkins Field airport. Aircraft will be on display for people to see. A Las Vegas Metro Support Ship helicopter will be flying in and landing on site. There will also be an operating jet engine on display from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Local remote control aircraft pilots as well as licensed drone operators will be on hand to show what they do as well.

Best of all, the pilots of 11 different aircraft will be taking youngsters on free flights throughout the morning as part of the Young Eagles Rally. DeBerardinis said that about 100 time slots have been opened for kids to sign up to take the flights that day. DeBerardinis expects those time slots to fill quickly.

“Registration for the flights is all to be done online,” he said last week. “We set it up over the last weekend and right now we already have 32 registered.”

Youngsters ages 8-17 can register for a free flight HERE (https://youngeaglesday.org). Registration is open to all interested kids.

For additional information about the event and about the Perkins Field Flying Club, visit the club’s Facebook page at “PerkinsFieldFlying-Club; or send an email to perkinsfieldflyingclub@gmail.com.