flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
We had a great time yesterday taking my son to this EAA event yesterday. It was billed as having the following activities:
• Experience the thrill of flying in the Wright Flyer simulator
• Parachute an egg safely to the ground in the “Houston, We May Have an Omelet” egg drop challenge
• Build your own specially designed paper airplane and launch it through various targets
• Explore the museum in the Stamp Scavenger Hunt
• Watch radio-controlled airplane and model-making demonstrations
• Free Flight and RC air show at 1 p.m.
• Meet Aviore, the Young Eagle's Superhero inspired by Stan Lee (Saturday only)
• Enjoy hands-on activities and exhibits in the KidVenture Gallery
• Assemble and fly a balsa glider you can keep
• Watch kid-friendly movies in the Hilton Aviation Theater
The cost was simply regular EAA museum admission. There was a very experienced lady working at the register when I showed up, and she realized it'd be cheaper to add the rest of my family on for the rest of this year's membership than to pay the museum admission, so my wife and son are now officially EAA members too.
Oh, you didn't realize that Oshkosh exists the rest of the year? Well, it does:
Now, my wife is very supportive of my aviation habit. She's not particularly interested in the mechanics, but she loves being flown places, and she's quite good at tolerating the various PoA fly-ins we attend... But going to this was actually her idea.
My son, however, is an airplane nut! He's 2 years old, has been on at least nine out-of-state trips in the Mooney with us, he's been to Airventure twice (three times if you count in utero...) and just eats up anything aviation related. His favorite movie is Planes, favorite TV show is Super Wings, he's got about a million airplane toys and loves them all, he notices airplanes flying outside by hearing the sound, and when we get a new Sport Aviation or AOPA Pilot magazine in the mail, he demands that we sit down together and page through it looking at the airplanes.
Now, put that kid in the EAA museum with a bunch of other kids and families with a bunch of kid-friendly activities... And you end up with one excited kid!
We did about half the activities listed above, and looked around the museum a bunch too:
The "airshow" was in the Eagle hangar part of the museum, and so they had to clear enough space for that, which involved moving a couple of airplanes outside... Unfortunately, the weather didn't feel like welcoming them outside, and dumped a few inches of snow on them overnight:
The "Airshow" was a pretty impressive display of free-flight and radio controlled aircraft. I even bought one today that I saw up there yesterday, but that's for another thread. RC has made some nearly unbelievable strides over the past 30 years. The Fox Valley RC Club did a great job with that part of the demo, and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.
But, by the end of the airshow, my son was finally running out of steam. He managed to stay awake long enough to play with some stuff in the gift shop, but after over four hours of aviation overload (an eternity for a two-year-old), I think we wore him out:
Big thanks to EAA for a well-done event.
• Experience the thrill of flying in the Wright Flyer simulator
• Parachute an egg safely to the ground in the “Houston, We May Have an Omelet” egg drop challenge
• Build your own specially designed paper airplane and launch it through various targets
• Explore the museum in the Stamp Scavenger Hunt
• Watch radio-controlled airplane and model-making demonstrations
• Free Flight and RC air show at 1 p.m.
• Meet Aviore, the Young Eagle's Superhero inspired by Stan Lee (Saturday only)
• Enjoy hands-on activities and exhibits in the KidVenture Gallery
• Assemble and fly a balsa glider you can keep
• Watch kid-friendly movies in the Hilton Aviation Theater
The cost was simply regular EAA museum admission. There was a very experienced lady working at the register when I showed up, and she realized it'd be cheaper to add the rest of my family on for the rest of this year's membership than to pay the museum admission, so my wife and son are now officially EAA members too.
Oh, you didn't realize that Oshkosh exists the rest of the year? Well, it does:
Now, my wife is very supportive of my aviation habit. She's not particularly interested in the mechanics, but she loves being flown places, and she's quite good at tolerating the various PoA fly-ins we attend... But going to this was actually her idea.
My son, however, is an airplane nut!
He's 2 years old, has been on at least nine out-of-state trips in the Mooney with us, he's been to Airventure twice (three times if you count in utero...) and just eats up anything aviation related. His favorite movie is Planes, favorite TV show is Super Wings, he's got about a million airplane toys and loves them all, he notices airplanes flying outside by hearing the sound, and when we get a new Sport Aviation or AOPA Pilot magazine in the mail, he demands that we sit down together and page through it looking at the airplanes. Now, put that kid in the EAA museum with a bunch of other kids and families with a bunch of kid-friendly activities... And you end up with one excited kid!
We did about half the activities listed above, and looked around the museum a bunch too:
The "airshow" was in the Eagle hangar part of the museum, and so they had to clear enough space for that, which involved moving a couple of airplanes outside... Unfortunately, the weather didn't feel like welcoming them outside, and dumped a few inches of snow on them overnight:
The "Airshow" was a pretty impressive display of free-flight and radio controlled aircraft. I even bought one today that I saw up there yesterday, but that's for another thread. RC has made some nearly unbelievable strides over the past 30 years. The Fox Valley RC Club did a great job with that part of the demo, and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.
But, by the end of the airshow, my son was finally running out of steam. He managed to stay awake long enough to play with some stuff in the gift shop, but after over four hours of aviation overload (an eternity for a two-year-old), I think we wore him out:
Big thanks to EAA for a well-done event.
