Republic file photo Columbus Huey will bring its Huey helicopter to this year’s Columbus “Aviation Day 2023 - Inspire to go Higher” event on Saturday.
Columbus Municipal Airport is just a few days away from a day full of activities aimed at promoting the opportunities and excitement offered by the field of aviation.
The airport will host “Aviation Day 2023 – Inspire to go Higher” from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The event will include aircraft rides, remote control flight demonstrations and an “Inspiration Station” highlighting different opportunities in the field of aviation.
Other activities include a pancake breakfast offered by Boy Scout Troop 228 from Franklin (which is expected to run from about 8-10:30 a.m.), food trucks, free bounce houses, and static displays of aircraft. The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum and its restored C-119 will also be open to visitors.
“Definitely a little different than our standard Aviation Days in the past, where we’ve had big airshows and things, but this year, (it) just did not work out for us,” Brian Payne, director of the Columbus Municipal Airport.
He said that the event is largely free, with the exception of food and aircraft rides.
According to airport officials, a variety of aircraft will be offering rides throughout the event, including helicopters as well as planes. The prices are as follows:
- Jet Access — Piper and Evektor, $45
- Cliff Robinson — Stearman bi-plane, $220 for 20 minutes
- Kestrel Warbird Experience —T-6 Texan, $300 for a 15-minute introductory experience and $575 for a 30-minute aerobatic experience
- Commemorative Airforce — PT-26, $225 and BT-13, $350
- Columbus Huey — Huey Helicopter, $100 per person
- Venture Helicopters — Robinson R44 Helicopter, $40 per person
“We actually do have free aircraft rides for kids ages 8 to 17, and that’s through the Young Eagles program,” Payne added. “But we do that every month throughout the summertime, pretty much always the first Saturday of the month, we do these free rides for kids. But I know this Aviation Day, we’re going to be giving at least 80 kids hopefully their first aircraft ride. And that’s the idea, just to get them excited about aviation.”
While Aviation Day will not include an air show, he said there will be a group of four aircraft in the air, doing “smoke-on” passes over Columbus all morning as a way to promote the event.
Additionally, the airport has partnered with the Bartholomew County RC Fliers, which will do flight demonstrations with remote control aircraft at 10 a.m. and noon.
“I think they’re planning on five remote control airplanes at one time, flying kind of in a pattern and doing different tricks and such,” said Payne. “So if you’ve never seen a remote control aircraft flight demonstration, it’s really remarkable what they can accomplish.”
On the education side, the Inspiration Station portion of Aviation Day will provide attendees a chance to learn about different opportunities and organizations in the field of aviation, said Payne. Every 15 minutes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a different entity will lead a presentation or discussion. The lineup includes a variety of higher education institutions, aviation education programs, military organizations and other aviation groups. A schedule of presenters is available on the airport’s Facebook page.
Payne added that some organizations will have flight simulators available at the event, and attendees will also be able to tour the Columbus Propeller Makerspace, which is expected to offer a station where kids can do some making of their own.
“We’re just super passionate about aviation education here at the Columbus airport,” said Payne. “So we ran two different themes. And the idea was the ‘inspire’ or the inspiration side of the house, so inspiring people into aviation, inspiring youth to understand what we do here at the airport. And then the concept of ‘go higher’ was the flight portion of that. We haven’t had an opportunity where people could get rides here with many different aircraft for several years.”
