LETTER TO THE EDITOR
After reading The fallout from sonic booms, I couldn’t help but share some of the things that our flight club in Elkhart, Indiana, have been doing. I personally think that people look at pilots and planes with much wonder; we are not mainstream and the only experience people have is either in a cramped airline seat or watching someone doing aerobatics.
In Elkhart we have a small airport (3C1) and a flight club (MAA) FlyMAA.org. We have had issues with the community and decided that we needed to embrace the community. Some of the things we are doing to educate and befriend our community are:
- We have a Fathers’ Day fly-in where we give rides for a nominal fee and the proceeds are put into a scholarship fund.
- We award the scholarship to one student per year.
- We have pilots, of which I am one, who volunteer to teach a class on aviation to the local schools.
- We work with the local Boy Scouts and allow them to have events at the airport.
These are just a few things that a little airport run by volunteers does to help the non-flying in the world see the light.
The bottom line is that we need to meet people where they are and be an asset to the community.
Also, when an air event happens like the one you are writing about in this article, we are the first one that the local news turn to for answers, perhaps because we make ourselves so available to the community when good things are happening.
BRETT SCHUCK, via email
