Margy Natalie wrote:


Also debuting this year for "Become a Pilot" (if we can get it done in
time) a C-150 inside the museum that, when staffed, kids will be able to
sit in and learn how to use the control surfaces. Of course right now
it's sitting in the barn, filthy and with no wings on. Guess what I'm
doing on Wednesday!

Hey Margy, I bet Meridian could get that thing shiny in no time all :-)

By the way, Margy didn't mention it, but one of the stipulations of
being "on exhibit" is that you gotta stand around and talk about
your aircraft (which is not a problem for most aircraft owners).
Many of us have let kids sit in, work the controls, and get their
pictures taken in our aircraft.

One thing I observed and Jay and others who were there can also say,
unlike some disaster public fly-ins (the Dulles Special Olympics
Plane Pull event for instance), the public is REALY REALY well
behaved at these. First, I think that they are already in a
"museum" mind set, but the real key is that before they go out
on the ramp, they have to sit through a safety lecture about
not touching airplanes, dangers of propellers and the like.

Of course, a big hit (and oddly with the museum director as
much as with the kids) is our mascot, a four foot teddy
bear named Piper who rides in with me. The first year
he wore my Navion shooting down the Bonanza t-shirt (the
overall director of the Air and Space museum is a Bonanza
owner who declined the offer to bring his airplane to the
event). Last year he wore a shirt that says "Bears Fly"
shirt (mimicking the Woman Fly shirt I wear).