WindOnHisNose
BENEFACTOR
Lino Lakes MN (MY18)
SJ gave me the task years ago of putting together the Young Eagles rally at the New Holstein Airport Appreciation Day. Many of you have helped with this, in a variety of ways. It occurs to me that it might be useful to put together a guide of things that make the Rally's excellent. I would like to gather any ideas/concepts that you might have and circulate these to those who orchestrate Young Eagle Rally's, and to circulate these ideas to Young Eagle Coordinators in MN. This concept came to me while I was visiting with a good friend who does many YE flights, and who has seen the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in terms of Young Eagle Rally's.
For example...
Long wait times...The pre-event registration was such that kids (and their parents) were waiting long times for their flights. We are talking an hour or more. I'm not sure about you, but standing around killing time with a youngster is not particularly gratifying.
Complicated preflights...You may recall that at New Holstein we have a static display, using one person's aircraft as an example which is used by a pilot to describe the control surfaces, etc, so that the next in line, so to speak, can gain that understanding before being placed with their pilot. You may recall that we do this at New Holstein. The example that sticks in my mind is the year in which my super cub was used as a static display (broken bungee) and Jim "Big Deal" Dickerson was the instructor whose job was to familiarize the kids with the airplane. My job was to accompany the youngster, and their parent, from Jim's station to the intended pilot. I remember a woman with her little daughter who approached me from Jim's station and she rather sheepishly told me that Jim had told her that I was "Famous". He had told her that I had flown the Shuttle, that I had circled the Moon twice. I looked over at Jim and he was hiding his ****-eating grin from me...
The point of this message is to ask you what has made your Young Eagles Rally's most succesful. I want to accumulate your ideas and share them with those who run Young Eagle Rallys.
Thanks for giving this some thought.
Randy
For example...
Long wait times...The pre-event registration was such that kids (and their parents) were waiting long times for their flights. We are talking an hour or more. I'm not sure about you, but standing around killing time with a youngster is not particularly gratifying.
Complicated preflights...You may recall that at New Holstein we have a static display, using one person's aircraft as an example which is used by a pilot to describe the control surfaces, etc, so that the next in line, so to speak, can gain that understanding before being placed with their pilot. You may recall that we do this at New Holstein. The example that sticks in my mind is the year in which my super cub was used as a static display (broken bungee) and Jim "Big Deal" Dickerson was the instructor whose job was to familiarize the kids with the airplane. My job was to accompany the youngster, and their parent, from Jim's station to the intended pilot. I remember a woman with her little daughter who approached me from Jim's station and she rather sheepishly told me that Jim had told her that I was "Famous". He had told her that I had flown the Shuttle, that I had circled the Moon twice. I looked over at Jim and he was hiding his ****-eating grin from me...
The point of this message is to ask you what has made your Young Eagles Rally's most succesful. I want to accumulate your ideas and share them with those who run Young Eagle Rallys.
Thanks for giving this some thought.
Randy