4th of July Tahoe Truckee Honor Flyover circling Lake Tahoe

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - There won't be fireworks shows around Lake Tahoe but there will be the 4th of July Truckee Tahoe Honor Flyover honoring our nation's independence and frontline healthcare workers. Warbirds will take to the sky, flying over Truckee and Lake Tahoe communities.

A contingent of historic plans will leave the Truckee airport at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday the 4th and fly counterclockwise around Lake Tahoe (schedule below), coming back into Truckee by 12:15 p.m. The planes will not be on display at any airport, just a great show in the air.

The planned “parade in the sky” of military aircraft will feature the D-Day Squadron whose commemorative flyover missions continue throughout the nation, the last one covering over four Southern California counties on Memorial Day. The squadron plans to fly six DC-3 (C-47s) historic warbirds over Truckee Tahoe communities as a special gift supported by the Truckee Airport District.

The planes will flyover Tahoe Forest Hospital, all four shores of Lake Tahoe, Barton Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, Tahoe City, Squaw Valley and back to Truckee. The mission stretching 130 miles. The lead aircraft for this mission is Gooney Bird Group Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber C-47, piloted by U.S. Navy Veteran Sherman Smoot and Scott Stelzle. The progression will end with an Aeoranautica of Romania, IAR-823, Zlin “pulling up the rear.”

Planes participating

6 WWII Douglas C-47's Skytrains
C-47 Betsy's Biscuit Bomber
C-47 Flabob Express
C-53D D-Day Doll
C-47 Legend Airways 'Liberty'
C-47 Spirit of Benovia
C-47 Virginia Ann
North American Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon
North American T-28 Trojan
North American T-6 Texan
IAR-823 Zlin (military trainer aircraft built in Romania)
Beechcraft T-34C
C-47 Organizer
Featuring the D-Day Squadron and other Warbirds!

July 4 Schedule

11 a.m. Take off and head over downtown Truckee above Donner Pass Road toward Tahoe Forest Hospital
11:04 a.m. West end of Donner Lake
11:06 a.m. Meadow Park off Donner Pass Road
11:07 a.m. Tahoe Donner
11:11 a.m. Prosser Lakeview Estates
11:14 a.m. Glenshire Devonshire
11:16 a.m. Truckee Regional Park
11:17 a.m. Ponderosa Palisades/Sierra Meadows/Lahontan/Martis Camp/Shaffer’s Mill
11:18 a.m. Flying above Hwy 267 up Brockway Summit to King’s Beach

North-West Shores

11:20 a.m. Heading counterclockwise around Lake Tahoe - - Carnelian Bay, Dollar Point, Tahoe City
11:25 a.m. Flying above State Route 89 to Homewood, Tahoma, Meeks Bay, Emerald Bay toward the South Lake Tahoe “Y”

South Lake Tahoe

11:32 a.m. Barton Hospital, above Highway 50 to the casino corridor to above State Route 28 along Lake Tahoe’s East Shore

East Shore

11:43 a.m. Sand Harbor Nevada State Park
11:45 a.m. Hyatt Regency Pier and Incline Village Hospital
11:47 a.m. Kings Beach
11:52 a.m. Flying above the North Shore to Tahoe City
11:53 a.m. Up Truckee River Canyon to Squaw Valley

Truckee

11:55 a.m. Proceed back to Truckee over SaveMart on State Route 89; heading east above Donner Pass Road

Approximate time of completion 12:15 p.m.

The flyover is presented by the Truckee Tahoe Air Show and Truckee Tahoe Airport, and funded by the Truckee Tahoe Airport since their 2020 air show was canceled. It is being produced by the Air Show & Family Festival Committee.

D-Day Squadron launched from Oxford, Connecticut’s KOXC airport on May 19, 2019 for their “Mission to Normandy.” They successfully crossed the North Atlantic with 15 C-47 type aircraft, completing multiple paratrooper drops and a Presidential flyover for the US and French First Families while participating in events including the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, and commemorations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy spanning most of June 2019.