The Sedona Airport’s annual Wings and Wheels event is scheduled to touch down on Airport Mesa on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’s always been a free event,” Sedona Airport operations manager Michael Dearden said. “This year we’re starting to [collect] donations at the door of a nonperishable food item that goes to the Sedona Community Food Bank,” or a suggested donation of $2.
The event will feature a variety of static display aircraft, along with the annual car show hosted by the Sedona Car Club and a selection of food trucks. This year’s vehicle lineup will include a 1954 Ford Comete by FACEL coupe, one of only 2,265 that were constructed, according to erclassics.com.
The Sedona Fire District will perform a brief flag-raising ceremony on one of their ladder trucks at 10 a.m.
Parking for the event is still free and golf carts will be available to shuttle attendees from the airport parking lot to the event.
The Planes of Fame Air Museum will be bringing three World War II-era fighters, a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, a Curtiss P40 Warhawk and a North American P-51 Mustang. “The museum’s P-40 is a World War II combat veteran, built in Buffalo, N.Y., delivered on June 22, 1943, and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force,” Planes of Fame’s website states. “On March 10, 1945, while being flown by Pilot Officer J. O. Patten, this Kittyhawk Mk. IV destroyed a Japanese ‘Fu-Go’ fire-balloon bomb at 13,500 feet over Salt Spring Island, British Columbia … It was acquired by the museum in 1960 and restored in 1980 … and has appeared in the films ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Valkyrie.’”
“Wings and Wheels is all about family, fun and entertainment, and they can see some just beautiful cars,” Sedona Car Club President Don Hallford said.
Hallford noted that this year’s car show marks the first time they have employed online registration and sold out all of the exhibition spaces. Attendees will have 104 vehicles to tour on the Mesa. This year’s theme is “American Muscle Cars: The Beginning,” with a focus on Chevy Chevelles from 1964 to 1977 and Pontiac GTOs from 1964 to 1974. Hallford said that the 1967 Pontiac GTO is his favorite make and model out of that lineup for its combination of performance and aesthetics.
The car show awards presentation will begin at 2 p.m. Awards will include first and second places for each of the 10 classes in the show, President’s Choice, Best of Show and Mayor’s Choice. “The car show is our big fundraiser to raise money to support scholarships that we provide and also toolkits that we give to high school kids who are going into automotive technology studies,” Hallford said.
He estimated that the club had donated 15 toolkits to students, each of which would be worth about $350, in addition to the club’s scholarships.
For more information, visit sedonaairport.org or call (928) 282-4487, and for more information about the Sedona Car Club, visit sedonacarclub.com.
