Club volunteers at aviation event
Members of the Windy City Aviation Explorer Post No. 9 spent the week of July volunteering at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis. EAA AirVenture is the world's largest gathering of general aviation assembling over 10,000 airplanes including show planes, homebuilts, warbirds and vintage aircraft. In addition to nearly 1,000 exhibits, forums and presentations the 500,000 attendees during the week can enjoy a daily air show featuring top aerobatic performers and warbird demonstration flights.
During the weeklong trip, twelve members of Aviation Explorer Post joined with about 125 other Aviation Explorers from around the country at a special campground set aside for them on the EAA grounds.
Aviation Explorers volunteered one or more two-hour shifts each day assisting EAA officials by escorting homebuilt aircraft to their parking spaces, keeping crowds in safe areas to ensure flight line safety, and working on the taxiways directing incoming and outgoing airplanes to their destinations. When not volunteering, the Explorers were free to browse hundreds of aviation-related displays and exhibits, attend forums on flying topics and watch the air shows.
Volunteering at EAA Airventure is the highlight of the Aviation Explorer Post's annual program. Since its formation in 1994, the post has given youth the opportunity to experience the thrill of flying and explore the rewards of aviation careers. Post No. 9 Aviation Explorers study the principles of flight, then experience those principles in action during four flights each year in a small, general aviation airplane. Explorers also learn about aviation careers through speakers and field trips to locations such as FAA towers and other installations, maintenance and repair facilities and business jet charter services.
Aviation Explorer Post No. 9 is sponsored by Windy City Flyers and meets twice monthly in their facility at Chicago Executive (formerly Palwaukee) Airport. Young people ages 14-21 interested in aviation are invited to stop by an open house from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Signature Flight Service facility (behind the Control Tower) at Chicago Executive Airport, 1100 S. Milwaukee in Wheeling.
For more information contact Michael Haupt at mhaupt@edge-information.com or (847) 297-2020.