Walk in the clouds: Fly-in gives city officials rare view

Pennylynn Webb, Palestine Herald-Press, Texas
·2 min read

Jul. 20—Several Palestine city administrators took a walk in the clouds Saturday during a visit to the Palestine Municipal Airport.

Members of the Palestine City Council and city administration were invited out to the Palestine Municipal Airport to visit with a fly-in group on July 17.

Fly-ins are pre-arranged gatherings of pilots and their aircrafts. They can be formerly or informally organized and members of the public may be invited to view the aircraft. They can be aimed at specific aircraft classes or models and organized by national organizations, clubs or a group of friends. This particular fly-in was not an organized group. City administrators taking a tour to see the conditions of the airport on Friday were notified of the fly-in and invited to come out and visit with the pilots.

Mayor Dana Goolsby was treated to a ride in a Stagger EZ owned by a gentleman from McKinney. This was her first flight in a personal aircraft.

"I had never flown over Palestine and that was extremely interesting to me," Goolsby said. "I would like to go up and look again."

Dr. John Dorsett took Councilmember Justice Florence, his daughter, Jaxy, and City Manager Teresa Herrera up for a ride in a 1960 Beechcraft 33.

"We enjoyed our flight," said Florence. "It was my daughter's first time to fly. We flew around the city and she saw Little Mexico and our house. That was her favorite part."

This was also Herrera's first time in a personal aircraft.

"I really enjoyed seeing the development from the sky, seeing all the dirt being moved, was really amazing," Herrera said.

An organized fly-in, the Dogwood Fly-In, is set for Oct. 15-17 at the Palestine Airport. This event will be open to the public.

The Palestine Municipal Airport, KPSN, is a general aviation airport with two runways. The primary functions include serving as a fuel farm for aircrafts, providing transient aircraft with fuel and runways for landing and take-off, flight training and for terminal resting areas.

The primary runway is 5,005 feet long and 100 feet wide. The crosswind runway is 4,002 feet long and 75 feet wide.

The airport has pilot-controlled runway lighting for night landings.

The airport serves approximately 29 local planes and 35 transient planes per month.

Capital improvement projects for the Palestine airport are on the city council's radar for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.