Graueradler
Pattern Altitude
We wrapped this years Pilots Assoc. of Arkansas kid's camp, hosted at the Russellville airport, yesterday. One of the events was a fly-in and show and tell of interesting planes. The most unusual was a WWII BT-13. Second most unusual was Steve See's IAR. Steve also flew the farthest to show the kids his Romanian plane. It was about a 500 mile round trip for him. Many thanks Steve. The kids also had a medi-vac helo, a Twinkie, a Stinson Voyager, an RV-4, a Vee-Tailed Dr. Killer, a King Air, a Maule, and a C-210 that was old enough to have struts to look at (and probably others that I can't think of now). Eastern Aviation Fuels (Shell) bought 10 gal. of fuel for each plane that flew in and donated some goodies for the kids. (Thanks Darrell Phillips)
Unfortunately, the morning haze and mid-day heat has been so bad here that we had to postpone the kid's plane rides until September.
In addition to a variety of class room activities, the kids got to pre-flight inspect airplanes, watch a back pack powered parachute demo, watch and talk to sky divers from Siloam Springs, visit the maintenance shop and watch a pretty impressive helicopter demo by the medi-vac crew. It has been a really busy time and I'm going from memory. I fell like there are probably some things that I'm forgetting to mention.
We only had 22 kids this year (31 last year) but they were from all over this part of Arkansas, from the Conway area to Springdale. About 1/3 were girls. The girls were really thrilled that one of the sky divers was a lady.
We had monetary and/or volunteer support from the state aeronautics commission, the local pilots association (River Valley Pilots Assoc), members of the wider aviation community, EAA memberw, non-aviation members of the local community, local and not so local merchants (including Gaston's) as well as balsa gliders from the FAA.
I'm sure that we will have photos on the PAA web site but they probably aren't there yet. I'll post a link later.
Ralph McCormick, Fly-Low publisher, is the organizer. He is willing to share any info and material we have with any one interested in doing something similar.
Unfortunately, the morning haze and mid-day heat has been so bad here that we had to postpone the kid's plane rides until September.
In addition to a variety of class room activities, the kids got to pre-flight inspect airplanes, watch a back pack powered parachute demo, watch and talk to sky divers from Siloam Springs, visit the maintenance shop and watch a pretty impressive helicopter demo by the medi-vac crew. It has been a really busy time and I'm going from memory. I fell like there are probably some things that I'm forgetting to mention.
We only had 22 kids this year (31 last year) but they were from all over this part of Arkansas, from the Conway area to Springdale. About 1/3 were girls. The girls were really thrilled that one of the sky divers was a lady.
We had monetary and/or volunteer support from the state aeronautics commission, the local pilots association (River Valley Pilots Assoc), members of the wider aviation community, EAA memberw, non-aviation members of the local community, local and not so local merchants (including Gaston's) as well as balsa gliders from the FAA.
I'm sure that we will have photos on the PAA web site but they probably aren't there yet. I'll post a link later.
Ralph McCormick, Fly-Low publisher, is the organizer. He is willing to share any info and material we have with any one interested in doing something similar.
