Press Release 

 

It’s AirFest time at Tallahassee Regional Airport! Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 445 invites you to grab the stick in a WWII T-6 Texan fighter trainer and learn to do loops and rolls like a top gun pilot. You can even get a DVD of yourself doing the maneuvers. If you’re not quite so adventurous, take a more sedate ride in a Robinson helicopter or a Cessna or Piper airplane. Students ages 8-17 can get a free plane ride and become a Young Eagle. Children can man the machine guns in a ground bound Vietnam era Huey helicopter and let their imaginations run wild.  For a real challenge, you can attack the U.S. Army’s rock climbing wall. 

What’s it like to fly around the world in 90 minutes, or spend months in a space station? You can ask former astronaut Capt. Winston Scott (USN ret.) while he signs your copy of his book Reflections from Orbit. Col. Gene Greenwood (USAF Ret.) will be sitting under the wing of a B-25 Mitchell bomber recounting the terror and exhilaration of his bombing missions over Europe and the South Pacific during WWII. Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world, will be available to shed light on her record flight that ended in April 1964. CarolAnn Garratt and her friend Carol Foy set an around the world speed record for their class plane in 2008. She’ll be on hand to sign copies of her book Upon Silver Wings II that chronicles this amazing journey. The trip was undertaken to raise funds for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and all proceeds from the book go directly to ALS-TDI. 

You’ll get to see a number of the new Light Sport category airplanes. These innovative two passenger planes are easy to fly and inexpensive to operate and maintain. Pilots with a Light Sport license are not required to pass a FAA physical to maintain their licenses. Manufacturer’s reps and dealers will be available to give test flights.  

The younger set will like exhibits from the Challenger Center and the Tallahassee Museum, as well as the Civil Air Patrol’s flight simulators. 

For those interested in a career in aviation there will be exhibits and representatives from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Institute of Technology, and Lively Technical Center. 

Enjoy the sounds, sights, and smells of aviation mixed with BBQ, hot dogs, snow cones, and Italian ice…..only at AirFest. 

Hours 9-5 Saturday and 9-4 Sunday May 16 and 17 at Tallahassee Regional Airport. Enter gate 29 just north of the old terminal. General admission $5.

Military, Law Enforcement, and Firefighters free with ID. Children under 12 free. 

Check www.airfest2009.com for more details.