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Twisp Airport Weekly Bonfire & BBQ
story and photos by Kelly Huffman
 Bob Stone, Bob Ulrich and Ross Darling are regulars at the Twisp Municipal Airport’s weekly Friday night bonfire and barbecue. -
photo by Kelly Huffman
How far will some people go in order to get out of the house on a Friday night? For Chewelah residents Margo Sety and her pilot boyfriend Chris Ogden, the answer is about 111 air miles.
The first stop on their social calendar last Friday: the Twisp Municipal Airport, where a core group of regulars braved the spring chill for a weekly bonfire and barbecue. It was the second visit for the couple, who first flew Ogden’s 4-seater Cessna here in 2011, inspired by a mention of the gathering in a pilots’ magazine.
They were drawn back to the fire, says Sety, by the “friendly folks who are happy to sit and chat and feed us.” After the Methow-style mixer at the airport, the couple was en route to the Twisp River Pub for music and dinner, and then on to a local hotel for the night.
The airport get-together happens “almost 52 weeks a year,” sub-zero temperatures aside, says regular Bob Stone. “We decided there’s no reason not to do it in
winter,” he shrugs. “Just wear more clothes.”
 Built to last: a welded Caterpillar track makes a substantial fire ring at the Twisp airport. - photo by Kelly Huffman On any given Friday evening, there are decades of aviation savvy wrapped up in the men and women chatting around Darling’s fire ring. With mountains for a backdrop and stars overhead, this is where a newly-licensed hobby pilot might rub shoulders with Vietnam-era gunship pilots, retired airline professionals, long-time instructors and other hobbyists.
But it’s a no-wings-required event, insists Stone. “You don’t have to be a pilot. It’s open to anyone who has flown, who wants to fly…or has seen a plane,” he nudges. Rest assured there’ll be plenty of conversation, burgers, beers and brownies to go around—even for the resolutely earthbound.
3/27/2013
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