May 12, 2012 - Flying Young
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Saturday I gave airplane rides to Boy Scouts at Bay Bridge aiport (W29). It was the
perfect weather for it: sunny blue skies, warm, smooth air and
great visibility. I made the short hop southeast across the bay
around noon. Here I am on final for runway 29. When the
visibility is great like today, it seems like you could throw a rock
across the bay. |
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| Ninety-three Boy Scouts received airplane
rides. Seventeen planes took part including three from my EAA
Chapter 571: George (RV-8), Dan (Taylorcraft) and
myself. Most of the airplanes and pilots were supplied by the Chesapeake Sport Pilot school at Bay
Bridge. Phil, also a Chapter
member, ran the show. |
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Dan's Taylorcraft. |
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| George and Dan
waiting for the flying to start. |
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The Boy Scouts spent the morning
in the hangar working on their Aviation merit badge. |
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| The Pizza bar
opened up around noon for lunch. |
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| Hungry Scouts lined
up for pizza. |
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| This T-34 was
giving rides to the adult Scout leaders. |
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Lots of Scouts. |
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| Who wants to go
flying? |
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The Chesapeake Sport Pilot's nattily
attired in bright red sportshirts. |
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| After a safety
brief, we started flying around 1:30. Here is my first rider. |
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Second rider, ready to go.
Bay Bridge airport was probably the busiest uncontrolled airport in Maryland
during the next three hours or so. There were a couple instances of
taxi gridlock, and never ending takeoff and landings. |
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Third rider.
The event was very well organized, with a ground crew escorting riders
to and from the airplanes, and prepping paperwork and managing Scouts in
the registration tent. |
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Fourth rider.
I think I ended up giving six rides.
The rides were 15-20 minutes. I tried to give them a taste of all
the different kinds of flying the RV can do. All in all it was
a good aviation day, although I was pretty tired afterwards. I hope we
inspired a few of the kids to become pilots some day. |
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