3 posters

Museum of Women Pilots Open House

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Post n°1

Museum of Women Pilots Open House

by كابتن حاتم Thu 15 Apr 2010, 1:02 pm

Museum of Women Pilots Open House

June 25, 2008

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I got this note a while back from reader Jim Dhaenens who'd set up a Flight Simulator display at a recent event, and thought it was too good not to share. Jim writes:
Hi Hal,
I'm not a Community Evangelist, but I played one yesterday at the Museum of Women Pilots during their open house here in Oklahoma City. They had the usual stuff I guess: helicopters landing on the lawn, pilots of all ilk, male and female wandering about telling stories. The Museum has some pretty cool stuff on women in aviation but as with most world changing applications of physics, the differences are overshadowed by the subject matter.

I went at he behest of the Oklahoma Chapter Chairman of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots, Liz Lundin. She also happens to be the Executive Director of Curtiss-Wright Wiley Post Hanger, Inc., the folks I intended to benefit from my Wiley Post Airport scenery. I presented the scenery and invited everyone to my table to try it for themselves.

Being a relatively recent convert to Flight Simulator (I got my first copy 4 years ago) I thought that everyone knew what it was and what it did. Some folks said that they had it, but it was an older version. Some folks couldn't believe they could go out to the local Wal Mart or Circuit City and get it. Most older pilots would not try it ... at least in sight of other pilots. I happened on a strategy that worked every time...kids. As kids would look around the Wiley Post Scenery, I would tell their parents/grandparents/adult escort about the simulator and scenery.

The conversations would go like this:

"That looks nice, do you have any Lear Jets little Tommy could fly? His grandad flies a Lear 60."
"Well, Ma'am, I have a Lear 45, will that do?"
"I suppose so, we have a Bonanza at Wiley Post," and invariably they would show me their hanger space at the airport.

I had a few challenges on the scenery...some of the folks that owned businesses at Wiley Post were there and challenged me to show their businesses and other sites at the airport. All went away satisfied if not amazed at the detail.

And I met a bunch of good folks, from people who remembered the Wiley Post Hanger when it was at its original location, to a young couple who have one of the most aviation.centric marriages I've seen: He is a Navy Pilot and flies EC-6's out of Tinker AFB and she flies for Southwest Airlines out of Will Rogers.

I felt like I should have had a Flight Simulator X banner over my table.

At any rate, I thought you might be interested.

Jim
My thanks to Jim for writing, and especially for supporting a worthy cause. If I had "Honorary Evangelist" badges, I'd send him one right away! Click the picture at the top of the post to learn more about the museum.