AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - May 2022 - 48

BRIEFING
COMMUNI T Y /
Test Pilot Answers /
from p. 36
1 The Learjet 23 was based on the
Swiss P-16 fighter, designed primarily
by Dr. Hans Studer. The model
designation 23 was the result of the
Learjet being Studer's third twin-jet
design (two engines, third design).
2 The correct answer is A. The other
choices are characteristics of an aft
center of gravity.
Food trucks and a fly-in
How a California airport showed off to its local community
BY NIKI BRITTON
IT STARTED AS a simple idea: share
California's San Martin Airport and love
of aviation with our local community. All
I needed to do was find a like-minded
individual to help me get this idea off the
ground. Local flight instructor and recent
acrobatic fanatic Dr. Joe McMurray had
been itching to have an airport event, so I
reached out with my idea. His response was
an immediate and enthusiastic, " Yes! "
We had our first hangar meeting a few
days later and made two core decisions:
The date would be September 11; specifically,
the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 to
honor members of our military and first
responders. Having food trucks would be
the second-best way to attract attendees.
The best way to attract attendees is, of
course, airplanes.
We launched the idea with only three
months until the date of our event and
no advertising budget, so we settled on a
grassroots marketing approach. I created
an event on Facebook and shared it with
local community pages and pilot groups.
Then, I designed and printed posters with
a QR code linking to the Facebook event
and hung them over town in local businesses.
These posters were printed for
48
AOPA PILOT / May 2022
free, a donation from a local printer. We
also reached out to the local newspaper,
which did a short feature for us.
Many food trucks will offer to donate a
percentage of their proceeds to the event
fundraiser; however, with no idea how
many people would attend, we decided to
invite the food trucks with zero monetary
obligation. Eight food trucks committed
to attending the event, including one that
reached out after seeing our poster!
We started setup bright and early on
September 11. All entertainment and food
trucks arrived on time, and we were ready
to go. The event was scheduled to take
place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. By 9:30 a.m.
guests began arriving, by 1 p.m. our parking
lot and aircraft ramp were overflowing.
At the end of the day, the event saw nearly
2,000 guests and more than 60 fly-in aircraft.
The food trucks had (happily) sold
out of food, and the local flight schools had
dozens of new leads and booked several
introductory flights. In the days that followed,
guests raved about the wonderful
time they had at the event on social media
and were already asking if this would
become an annual occurrence.
niki.britton@aopa.org
3 This is a mnemonic intended to
help pilots remember W U V H R K D
B G M, the sequence of letters flashed
in Morse code by beacons positioned
approximately 10 miles apart along
an airway. Each letter enabled a pilot
to determine which beacon he was
observing and, therefore, his position
along the airway.
4 A Frenchman, Adolphe Pégoud,
performed an outside loop in a Blériot
Monoplane on September 1, 1913.
The first American to do so was James
H. " Jimmy " Doolittle, who used a
Curtiss fighter in the same month that
Lindbergh flew to Paris (May 1927).
5 LETZZ RLLLL ( " let's roll " ) are
consecutive waypoints on the
Freedom 5 Arrival to Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport in honor
of Todd Beamer and the other heroes
aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on
September 11, 2001.
6 True. They fought in North Africa
and were named after the squadron
of pilots from the United States who
were impatient with U.S. neutrality
and volunteered to fight for the French
prior to U.S. entry into the Great War
(World War I).
7 The correct answer is D. This flying
boat had four turbojet engines and
was intended as a nuclear weapon
delivery system for the U.S. Navy, but
its role was eclipsed by the Polaris
submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Twelve were built.
8 True. The French-born German
engineer (1858-1913) developed
the " pressure-ignited heat engine "
between 1885 and 1898.
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - May 2022
