Jordan Brown, 4, Louisburg, excitedly peers over the wing of an airplane ride Saturday at Miami County Airport. Jim Bosley gave 100 rides, pulling children with his lead vehicle. (Photo by Brian
McCauley)
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Enjoying aerial entertainment
Visitors flock to Miami County Airport for annual celebration
By Doug Carder, dcarder@miconews.com
L.M. Town took off from Richards-Gebauer Air Force base outside Belton, Mo., in his T-38 jet on a clear day in 1966, with a slight detour in mind before this young U.S. Air Force pilot and his buddy returned to their flight school in Enid, Okla.
The two pilots guided their T-38s to Louisburg, then zigged west and zagged south, putting them on a direct course for Somerset.
“I had already called my parents, and I think the whole town of Somerset was standing outside waiting for us.”
The two pilots hit the “burners” and rolled in salute to the cheering Somerset residents on the ground below.
Town’s anecdote from his Air Force days delighted a gathering of children and adults who were lining up for airplane rides early Saturday morning at the Miami County Airport Association’s annual Airport Day. Town and several other pilots ferried scores of area residents on a bird’s eye tour of the surrounding countryside, flying over Hillsdale Lake to south of Osawatomie and several points in between.
“Mom, I flew over our house!” said 7-year-old Mackenzie Correll as she clung to her dad’s side on the tarmac.
Moments earlier, the first-grader at Trojan Elementary School in Osawatomie bound from pilot Frank Flink’s Cessna and jumped so high she nearly touched the wing. She turned and asked her dad, Kyle Correll, for his cell phone so she could talk to mom.
Correll patted his daughter on the head as she talked on the phone. “It was awesome. I thought she might be nervous, but she wasn’t at all. This was her first flight.”
Mackenzie, who turned 7 on Sept. 30, wanted to use the $20 she had received for her birthday to pay for the flight.
“Was it a nice birthday present?” her dad asked.
The beaming, belated birthday girl nodded. “Yep.”
Mackenzie was among dozens of youngsters who took airplane rides Saturday. Association pilots gave 72 rides.
“With gas prices going up, I think we’ll just about break even,” said Wayne Harclerode, manager of the airport and a member of the airport association. “We’re a non-profit, so breaking even is OK. The main goal is to promote aviation. We had a good time.”
A member of Paola Boy Scouts Troop 100, Matt Sommer took a ride in preparation for an aviation merit badge he hopes to earn at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson this December.
“The take-off was so smooth. We were in the air, but you couldn’t really tell we had left the ground,” said 12-year-old Sommer, clad in his neon green soccer shirt and blue shorts.
Kenny Sommer, who earned his pilot’s license in the 1980s, accompanied his son on the flight before they headed out for Matt’s soccer game.
“I enjoy flying, but it’s gotten expensive,” Kenny Sommer said. “I think it was around $25 an hour to rent a plane back in the ’80s, and now it’s around $100 an hour. This (Airport Day) is really nice.”
Deanna Gould of Lane, who accompanied her 6-year-old son, Tanner, on their flight agreed with Kenny Sommer’s assessment of Airport Day, which also featured aerial flying formations, a car show and a ping-pong ball drop loaded with prizes.
Gould has completed 36 solo flying hours and hopes to obtain her pilot’s license someday.
“When I was going to school at Pittsburg (State University), they used to let me take the plane home on Friday and bring it back on Sunday,” she recalled. “It was a good way to rack up hours.”
Brad Barrett, 12, hopes to earn his pilot’s license someday, too. The seventh-grader at Prairie View Middle School was joined on the flight by his mom, Susan Barrett, who is accustom to flying on commercial airlines.
“I was born in England, and I’ve flown back and forth,” said Barrett, a Parker resident. “My dad’s friend also had a plane, so I’ve flown a lot in a small plane, too.”
Tobi and Jeff Bitner of Spring Hill have flown commercially, too, but Airport Day offered a chance for the Bitners to let their young daughters, Madison, 9, and Annabelle, 6, experience flying in a small plane.
Leaning against a stroller containing the youngest member of the Bitner family, 2-year-old Karma, Tobi Bitner gave her husband and daughters the thumbs-up sign as their plane taxied away on the tarmac.
“I’m sure I’m more nervous than they are,” Bitner said laughingly after the plane lifted from the runway. She scanned the tarmac, looking at more than a dozen planes which had flown in for Airport Day. “You couldn’t ask for a better day.”
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The two pilots guided their T-38s to Louisburg, then zigged west and zagged south, putting them on a direct course for Somerset.
“I had already called my parents, and I think the whole town of Somerset was standing outside waiting for us.”
The two pilots hit the “burners” and rolled in salute to the cheering Somerset residents on the ground below.
Town’s anecdote from his Air Force days delighted a gathering of children and adults who were lining up for airplane rides early Saturday morning at the Miami County Airport Association’s annual Airport Day. Town and several other pilots ferried scores of area residents on a bird’s eye tour of the surrounding countryside, flying over Hillsdale Lake to south of Osawatomie and several points in between.
“Mom, I flew over our house!” said 7-year-old Mackenzie Correll as she clung to her dad’s side on the tarmac.
Moments earlier, the first-grader at Trojan Elementary School in Osawatomie bound from pilot Frank Flink’s Cessna and jumped so high she nearly touched the wing. She turned and asked her dad, Kyle Correll, for his cell phone so she could talk to mom.
Correll patted his daughter on the head as she talked on the phone. “It was awesome. I thought she might be nervous, but she wasn’t at all. This was her first flight.”
Mackenzie, who turned 7 on Sept. 30, wanted to use the $20 she had received for her birthday to pay for the flight.
“Was it a nice birthday present?” her dad asked.
The beaming, belated birthday girl nodded. “Yep.”
Mackenzie was among dozens of youngsters who took airplane rides Saturday. Association pilots gave 72 rides.
“With gas prices going up, I think we’ll just about break even,” said Wayne Harclerode, manager of the airport and a member of the airport association. “We’re a non-profit, so breaking even is OK. The main goal is to promote aviation. We had a good time.”
A member of Paola Boy Scouts Troop 100, Matt Sommer took a ride in preparation for an aviation merit badge he hopes to earn at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson this December.
“The take-off was so smooth. We were in the air, but you couldn’t really tell we had left the ground,” said 12-year-old Sommer, clad in his neon green soccer shirt and blue shorts.
Kenny Sommer, who earned his pilot’s license in the 1980s, accompanied his son on the flight before they headed out for Matt’s soccer game.
“I enjoy flying, but it’s gotten expensive,” Kenny Sommer said. “I think it was around $25 an hour to rent a plane back in the ’80s, and now it’s around $100 an hour. This (Airport Day) is really nice.”
Deanna Gould of Lane, who accompanied her 6-year-old son, Tanner, on their flight agreed with Kenny Sommer’s assessment of Airport Day, which also featured aerial flying formations, a car show and a ping-pong ball drop loaded with prizes.
Gould has completed 36 solo flying hours and hopes to obtain her pilot’s license someday.
“When I was going to school at Pittsburg (State University), they used to let me take the plane home on Friday and bring it back on Sunday,” she recalled. “It was a good way to rack up hours.”
Brad Barrett, 12, hopes to earn his pilot’s license someday, too. The seventh-grader at Prairie View Middle School was joined on the flight by his mom, Susan Barrett, who is accustom to flying on commercial airlines.
“I was born in England, and I’ve flown back and forth,” said Barrett, a Parker resident. “My dad’s friend also had a plane, so I’ve flown a lot in a small plane, too.”
Tobi and Jeff Bitner of Spring Hill have flown commercially, too, but Airport Day offered a chance for the Bitners to let their young daughters, Madison, 9, and Annabelle, 6, experience flying in a small plane.
Leaning against a stroller containing the youngest member of the Bitner family, 2-year-old Karma, Tobi Bitner gave her husband and daughters the thumbs-up sign as their plane taxied away on the tarmac.
“I’m sure I’m more nervous than they are,” Bitner said laughingly after the plane lifted from the runway. She scanned the tarmac, looking at more than a dozen planes which had flown in for Airport Day. “You couldn’t ask for a better day.”