15th Annual Ford Airport Day a Success

[Yooper Rocketman]

My local EAA Chapter hosted our 15th Annual Ford Airport Day last weekend (just getting caught up enough to post it).  We invited the Model A club from the U.P. to come down to be part of the show and allowed them a photo shoot with the Ford Trimotor, our premier attraction this year.  The main show was Saturday, but the Trimotor was with us for 4 days and Friday we hosted the local VA Hospital and their Annual POW/MIA Event.  When the vets got off the bus, they buzzed right over to a T-6 we had parked as the backdrop to the podium for the POW/MIA speakers.  It was pretty neat to see their interest in an old warbird era trainer, owned by a pilot from Pontiac, MI that was in the area and agreed to hang around for our event.  He ended up on three TV stations that evening, so clearly got a bit of attention.

Following the POW/MIA Ceremony, the chapter provided the vets a free lunch and after that they were sitting outside in their wheel chairs when the Trimotor taxied out for a flight.  They asked if the pilot would do a "Flyover" as he departed the pattern.  We called him on the radio and he complied.  After the Trimotor departed the area a few vets asked their escorts if they might be able to get a ride?  Pattie with the Trimotor from EAA called national and they agreed to drop the ticket price 33%, the airport manager and our chapter covered the rest, and after a considerable wait from the VA management for approval, 8 vets and a couple escorts loaded on the Trimotor for a ride.  They were some happy vets when they got off the plane!

Tom

[steingar]

I ran a trimotor stop once, even got to fly the thing. And we had the local Model A club show up. All in all it was a very fun time.