Mustang Aviation's Peitz planning Pierre's first airshow for July 4, 2020

Mustang Aviation built a new hangar for Avera St. Mary’s new air ambulance aircraft and service that began in 2018 and a year before that helped lead the effort to build a new fire safety building at the airport.

Pierre and the airport have been good to him and his family and he wants to give back to the community, Peitz said.

He promised former Mayor Laurie Gill he would bring an airshow to Pierre, Peitz said in promising Mayor Steve Harding it would happen next summer.

Peitz told the Commission he’s been flying in airshows for 30 years across the nation and knows about everyone who flies in them. So he’s calling in some chips to get some of the top flying acts for what will be the first air show in Pierre’s history, Peitz said.

He grew up in a flying family here and no one knows of an airshow here, and he remembers back several decades to when he spent his childhood often at the airport..

“I know if there had been one, I’d have been drug to it,” he said.

Some of the top stunt pilots will be available “and we are working on some military assets,” Peitz said.

It’s a perfect opportunity to show off to Pierre’s airport, which is “one of the best-kept secrets,” in community aviation, Peitz said. The show is slated for Saturday, July 4, and Sunday, July 5, but it likely will be preceded by “static” displays of old and new aircraft as early as Thursday, July 2, for people to wander around and see.

Pressed by Commissioner Blake Barringer about how many people such an airshow might attract, Peitz said “If I had to guess, I would say 5,000 to 10,000 people. . . . This will draw people from quite an area.”

Commissioner Jamie Huizenga, who focuses on the airport in his civic work, said, “This is a really big deal for Pierre. It’s the July 4th weekend. People can go to the parade in the morning, and in the afternoon do the air show and go to the rodeo in Fort Pierre in the evening, and then we’ve got fireworks. “

Pierre’s somewhat remote setting will be perfect for an airshow, with miles of open prairie on three sides of the airport and not exactly tall, urban development on the city side, Huizenga said.

“This is a great opportunity not only to showcase our airport, but to showcase our military hardware and also a respect and honor to our veterans.” Everyone from school kids to seniors will enjoy the aircraft such a show will bring to the community, Peitz said. “This is a community project.”

Mayor Steve Harding said more announcements soon will be out on organizing a committee to complete planning of the airshow.

The show has to include civic leaders, Peitz said. “We have to get the Mayor upside down in an airplane.”