Air Show 2006

The summer of air shows is with us.  Air shows are the NASCAR events of aviation.  If pilots could do for air shows what NASCAR has done for car racing, we might draw 200,000 for each air show.  I realize that large cities get large turnouts.  I know that many performers show up and do an excellent job for less than five thousand people.  They do it for a small fee, some for free.  When these performers perform, they give the same power show for any size audience.  That is the type of performers we have on the circuit today.   

Several lost their life last year, a somber year for the air show industry.  Many of those accidents were just human error accidents.  Until one has been in a hot, steamy cockpit for a time and performed aerobatic maneuvers close to the ground it is hard to understand what these air show guys and gals go through.  Many of them perform several times during an air show.  The stress on the mind, body does take its toll.  But they always give it their best.  I admire the stamina that each of them have.  Many of those that died last year were my friends; they will be missed by the industry and by me.  There are many more performers that will be out there, living out of a suitcase, eating at Burger King and making folks happy.  So if you get a chance to go to an air show, GO!!!  It will be a memory that you will have forever. 

Gray Power

I feel that senior citizens are the blunt of jokes, stories, and sneers.  To qualify what I call senior citizens, the age is over fifty-five years.  Many of us get there rather fast, like it or not.  Many people imply that once at that age live ends.  NOT TRUE!  Over the years I have found that with age come wisdom and tremendous performance.  Gutzon Borglum the man who started work on the four faces on Mount Rushmore at the age of fifty-eight, lived see it finished always comes to my mind.  For that story go to www.fly-low.com/mackshangar/borglum.html.  

In the early 1980s a man named Fisher from the New York City area, in his later years of life, took on the battle to save the aircraft carrier, Intrepid.  Today, that huge ship is an air and sea museum and not a metal building in Scottsdale, AZ and Detroit, MI.  Col. Sanders of KFC was in his sixties before he discovered success.  For all the jokes toward senior citizens, there are many success stories of seniors who keep on producing right up to the end.   

There are many occasions that show us the benefit of silver hair, false teeth, wrinkles, and a cane.  What does this have to do with aviation?  For one thing, many of the aviators that are active today fit that mold.  I can’t tell you how important it is to get the youth involved.  Young Eagles is a start, but there is more.  Aviation camps, air shows, or just repeated invitations to the youth to go flying with us are another way to share aviation.  I like the phrase, “Pay it forward.”  I think we should.  Take a kid flying tomorrow.