by John Dowd
Last week, Stevensville second graders gathered at the Stevensville Municipal Airport to watch Santa Claus land in a small aircraft, reportedly bound from the North Pole.
According to Kathi Olson, a member of the Museum of Mountain Flying out of Missoula, they have been organizing these fly-ins since 2020. The program is called Red Sleighs Over Montana, and was started by the museum to help engage with rural communities in Montana during Christmas.
According to Olson, Stevensville’s airport has always been very involved with the museum, and the school has remained supportive of this event. Stevensville is now one of the few communities still visited by Red Sleighs Over Montana.
Richard Wissenbach donated the use of his plane for the second year in a row. “Richard donates his time, and plane, to fly Santa down from the North Pole,” said Olson.
According to Wissenbach, a pilot out of Stevensville, he genuinely loves this event. For him, “it’s where my heart is; kids and aviation.”
Wissenbach had always wanted to fly, and was taken up into the sky at 16-years-old by a friend and never looked back. For him and others involved with the program, giving youth exposure to aviation is paramount.
After flying a circle around town, and watching the Stevensville School buses pull in, Santa and Wissenbach landed in front of the children. When Santa exited the plane, the children erupted into excitement and cheers. According to teachers and event organizers, they prep the kids long before, building up anticipation of the event. Luckily, last week the weather was perfect for a fly-in. Which is a good thing, because the North Pole is a long way to fly, according to Santa.
Once out of the plane, Santa spoke with the classes of children as a whole. Then the children were split into two groups. One group went to walk around Stevensville Airport Board Chair Craig Thomas’s hangar. The other group went into a hangar owned by a member of the Museum of Mountain Flying. The member lets the event utilize the hangar to hand out presents to kids and sit with Santa for photos.
All the presents, including toys, games and puzzles, were donated by the museum.
According to Brian Germane, Stevensville Airport Manager, the airport is always trying to see how they can help put the event on, but the museum always graciously takes everything on. For Germane, and others with the airport, it is an especially important event of the year because it allows them another way to spread “awareness of the airport and its importance to the community.” Additionally, Germane said, “As a child, to come and get this exposure to aviation, this is how we get the next generation of aviators.”
During their time in the hangar, the children also learned about aviation and how Wissenbach got started. Wissenbach is one of the few pilots still helping keep the event going. The original event was much bigger and much more involved. Holding it the way it was started got extremely time consuming and expensive for participating pilots, and Olson explained that many simply moved away.
The museum still works with schools across the state to coordinate the event. This year, Olson said they had fewer schools participate than in the past, and also fewer pilots. They decided to have one big event in Missoula and only a few special flights in rural communities, including the one in Stevensville.
According to Olson, the event started during COVID-19, when all the pilots participating would fly to Missoula, pick up toys and fly back out to their prospective communities to spread cheer and joy. “A lot of families weren’t going to be able to get their Christmas shopping done,” said Olson. At that time there were over 20 pilots. Olson hopes one day they can do the big event again.
Interested parties can learn more about the Stevensville Airport and its events by calling (406) 369-5502. For more information on the Museum of Mountain Flying, interested persons can visit museumofmountainflying.com or call (406) 721-3644.
Craig E Thomas says
Thank you.