It’s a simple idea: Invite anyone interested in aviation — be it pilots, aspiring pilots, or airplane aficionados — out to the airport for a cup of coffee.
Over the last six years, the simple idea that created Airplanes & Coffee has taken off, bringing pilots together and creating new pilots along the way.
Started by three Texas pilots — Mike Roberts, Russ Keith, and John Naugle — Airplanes & Coffee hosted its first event Sept. 5, 2020, at Addison Airport (KADS), just north of Dallas.
Since then, Airplanes & Coffee has held more than 60 events, provided more than 1,100 free discovery flights, awarded 29 aviation scholarships, and completed more than a dozen school visits, according to Naugle.
“Our Facebook community has grown to more than 460,000 members, and our content generated more than 13 million views during a recent two-month period,” he added.
But there’s more to it than just numbers, he emphasized.
“The most meaningful part of the story is not simply the scale,” he said. “We regularly meet people who believed aviation was inaccessible to them until someone invited them onto an airport ramp, introduced them to a pilot, or gave them their first flight. We are trying to build the welcoming front door to general aviation that many of us wish we had found earlier.”
The group’s next event is Sept. 12 at Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (KTPL) in Temple, Texas.
“More than 1,000 people attended there last year,” Naugle noted.
This year’s free event will include aircraft displays, a flour-bomb competition, aviation education, family activities, and a limited number of free discovery flights.
Find out more on the group’s Facebook page or at AirplanesAndCoffee.org.
This is a WONDERFUL idea. When I first got interested in aviation (back in 1973 or so) I found the local aviation community insular, unfriendly, unwelcoming, condescending and exclusionary. In spite of them, I got my license anyway. In 1982, I had a pocketful of cash and wanted to buy an airplane from a local FBO who had three for sale. Their attitude was the same, evidently my cash DIDN’T talk, so I found an airplane somewhere else.
If GA is going to survive, we HAVE to become more welcoming, we HAVE to interact with the local community in positive ways, and we HAVE to find ways to get young people interested and KEEP them interested. (Young Eagles is a good start – we need more like that.)
If we don’t do it, GA will become a bunch of old coots (like me, I’m 80) reminiscing unhappily about how “their” airport somehow became a golf course or shopping center or housing development.