On Saturday, March 12th, the Save Reid Hillview Social Media Team took to the skies to promote aviation careers among the youth of San Carlos, California at the first-ever Aviation Exploration Day!
We flew N679DC, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk from Tradewinds Aviation, a short 36 minutes from Reid Hillview to San Carlos Airport. Even the Cessna 182 “Skylane” from the Civil Air Patrol Squadrons based at Reid Hillview joined us! Something that’s pretty neat to point out here is that both of these aircraft completed this trip with 100% unleaded avgas!
The volunteers stood alongside San Jose State University, and other industry-leading groups, such as United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and various other vendors at the Hiller Aviation Museum, where “Inspiration Takes Flight.” Over the course of 4 hours, children and adults all stopped by our booth for a tour of the airplane. We told stories of how aviation has made an impact on our lives, what advice we would give to future aviators, and answered many questions about the aviation industry. We even spoke to a family visiting from Modesto, who had a son aspiring to be a pilot. He got to see how we could fly back to their home airport, KMOD, using the GPS! Another little girl programmed this $300,000 to make the trip to Denver International!
We also had many opportunities to promote awareness of our beloved Reid Hillview and even gained a few extra volunteers for our social media team. With some visits lasting 10-20 minutes per person, our voices became hoarse from the conversations!
It was so very gratifying though to see everyone’s smiling faces as they got a chance to see the cockpit of an airworthy airplane. Against the backdrop of the beautiful Garmin G1000 avionics suite, families took the time to take pictures holding the yoke and even got to flip a couple of switches and turn some dials. Parents walked away thanking our volunteers for this unique opportunity, and for giving so much valuable information about how to make aviation a career! Pair that with so many visitors walking around with our beautiful blue and brown “SRHV” buttons, and our team dubs this event a huge success for our cause!
We congratulate the organizers of Aviation Exploration Day on their great success, and thank them for the opportunity to interact with their 500 attendees! We would also like to extend a warm welcome to all the new friends we made. The “Save Reid Hillview” Team is looking to the future of the airport, and with your help, we are bound to succeed!