Tall Towers Aviation operator Tim “Toby” McPherson has been hosting an open house at his hangar in Page, North Dakota, every spring since 1989—until now. This year, instead of receiving some city dwellers who had driven from Fargo, North Dakota, at his company, McPherson decided to bring the open house to them. In conjunction with National Ag Day, McPherson hosted an open house at the Fargo Air Museum on Tuesday.

The full-day event showcased various ag aircraft, including McPherson’s refurbished serial #1 Ag-Cat, an Air Tractor AT-402 from Airborne Custom Spraying in Halstad, Minnesota, courtesy of operator Rob Aslesen, and a Piper Pawnee 150 spray plane.

Radio broadcaster Joel Heitkamp hosted his show at the museum from 8 to 11 a.m. News & Views with Joel Heitkamp airs locally during the 8 o’clock hour, while the last two hours from 9 to 11 a.m. reach seven states and three Canadian provinces. North Dakota Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring called into the show and was interviewed by Heitkamp.

The event included representatives from the wheat, corn, soybean, sugar beet and edible bean associations, chemical and seed reps, and members of the public, which was the main point of the event. While the annual open house he hosts at his hangar has worked well for the years, Toby was struck by some of the people who would show up. “The last couple years, people have come up from Fargo, which is 50 miles away, and they had questions. You’d almost think they weren’t from an agriculture state,” McPherson said. “They had no idea what we actually do. I just always emphasize to everybody I talk to, ‘We enjoy the safest, most abundant, most affordable food supply in the world.’”

That gave Toby the idea of hosting his open house at the Fargo Air Museum this year. He is on the museum’s board and was one of the driving forces behind the museum’s establishment when it opened almost 21 years ago, on Sept. 30, 2001. The fact that the open house took place on National Ag Day was fortuitous but somewhat coincidental. McPherson knew that National Ag Day fell on March 22, but he checked with Heitkamp about broadcasting his radio show from Fargo Air Museum during the open house. March 22 was the only availability Heitkamp had on his schedule, so McPherson got to work on organizing and promoting the open house at the museum. Toby estimates that about 25% of the visitors were customers of his and 75% were from the general public.

“The timing on everything worked out. It worked out well,” McPherson said. The event was well-received, and he heard more feedback about it on Heitkamp’s show yesterday morning. “That’s what we like to hear is more questions asked,” he said.