Flight Training - November/December 2023 - 6

ALWAYS LEARNING BY SARAH DEENER
Editor SARAH DEENER has marked
her calendar for Santa's upcoming
appearance at the local airport.
sarah.deener@aopa.org
looked up and thought that could be me
someday, but somehow as an adult I kept
finding my way back to an airport. I hope
our family flights and airport excursions
will leave my own kids with a positive
association between family and flying.
While my husband ordered burgers,
I asked my son what he liked best about
the airport so far. " Umm, " he said, staring
off into the middle distance. " The trees. "
MAKING MEMORIES
We'd barely left the parking lot and my 7-year-old was barrelrolling
down a grassy slope toward the hangar. " Roll down the hill! "
she urged her brother, who had spotted two small dogs ahead and
instead sprinted toward them shouting, " Can I pet your doggy? "
The kids were looking forward to the open house at our local airport after
enjoying the " airplane party " -AOPA's Aviator Showcase-there a few weeks
earlier. At that event, a preschooler, second grader, and I were outliers among the
prospective buyers peering into brand-new airplanes. " Don't touch, " I chided on
repeat, until a sympathetic sales rep welcomed them into the back of a Piper M600.
When one kid tried to climb the seats to check out the cockpit, he only chuckled and
assured me he has kids too.
If you've been out of the game for a while, it's easy to forget how exhausting
fun outings with small children can be. Ensuring their safety while minimizing the
disruption to others-amid the roar of a crowd and with an audience to your parenting-
is a game of strategy as well as a contact sport. Fortunately, this open house had a kids
zone and my husband was there so we could play one-on-one defense.
Inside the hangar, children crisscrossed a roped-off area on a dozen ride-on toys,
foam gliders whizzed past our ears, and plastic helicopters swooped through the air
in little hands. As our kids joined the fray, I sighed. As long as they stayed between the
checkered flags, they wouldn't damage equipment or pose a safety hazard. And even
toys identical to those we had at home took on a special luster in the airport excitement.
They bumped shoulders chasing gliders and swapped toys until they'd ridden every
one. Finally, we lured the kids out of the hangar with a scavenger hunt and the promise
of food. As we made our way toward the food trucks, a toddler stopped abruptly in the
middle of Taxiway Golf, frowning. " Jeff! " called his mother to Dad, already 10 strides
ahead. " He says his legs don't work anymore. "
My memories of airport events as a child are of smoke trails, droning engines, historic
airplanes, and wonder at my dad's knowledge of their obscure significance. I never
6
FLIGHT TRAINING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
CHILDREN CRISSCROSSED A
ROPED-OFF AREA ON RIDE-ON
TOYS, FOAM GLIDERS
WHIZZED PAST OUR EARS,
AND PLASTIC HELICOPTERS
SWOOPED THROUGH THE AIR
IN LITTLE HANDS.
As we waited on our order, we
explored the aircraft on static display. We
sensed the warmth of a hot air balloon
burner and felt the stitching of the
envelope. We checked off items on the
scavenger hunt ( " Pilot! That's you! " ), and
just when we'd given up on spotting a jet
on the field a Dulles departure passed
overhead for the win. I fussed at the kids
when they stood too close to the police
helicopter and my husband told me not
to worry so much; I fussed at them when
they stood close to the model airplanes
and the exhibitors piled on. ( " You'll hurt
yourself! " ) We sat down to eat around 1
p.m., peak nap time for children under 3,
and the occasional wails of toddlers hitting
burnout echoed around us like animal calls
in the wilderness.
The path back to the car led us-
slowly-past the ice cream truck, and we
capped off the day with a scoop of cherry
vanilla and blue shaved ice. With a hand on
each kid's back, we steered them through
the crowd as they drifted left and right,
heads down, focused on their sweet treats.
" So, what did you think? " I asked as we
pulled out of the airport and turned onto
the main road. I turned around to see my
son, head slumped forward, eyes closed,
blue ice dripping down his chin. FT

Flight Training - November/December 2023

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