By Kymberly Logan
This article originally appeared in EAA Chapter 377’s January 2024 newsletter, FLY PAPER, by chapter member Kymberly Logan.
We all have that one person who introduces us to aviation. Sometimes, it’s more than one person. For me, I was blessed to be born into aviation. My dad is a pilot, my grandfather, and someone else in the family line was a pilot/mechanic.
When I tell people I am an airport manager and aircraft mechanic, some people tell me they want to get into aviation or know someone who does. Some tell me they want to know more about it and want to get into the field. The first week of the new year, I spoke with a young lady who wants to be a mechanic!
I encourage and challenge everyone for this new year to help nurture someone’s desire to get into aviation. It doesn’t have to be a career! Just someone who wants to be part of our community and loves airplanes. Every month our chapter hosts wonderful get-togethers just to talk about aviation. Our chapter is blessed to have so many people who do a little bit of everything in aviation. We have builders, pilots, instructors, mechanics, an aircraft museum curator, and airport managers. That pretty much covers the spectrum of aviation! Sorry, I forgot about engineers…but I’m not partial to them sometimes! Haha, what mechanic is?
Talk to your local school counselor, talk to your local airport manager (trust me, we get calls about who teaches!), talk to your community! School counselors always know who may be interested, but sometimes they do not know that there are local opportunities! When someone calls or comes by to ask about lessons or anything aviation, I always share our website and newsletter. I encourage them to just come to a fly-in! I also encourage them to reach out to me if they have any questions, and if I cannot answer them, I know someone who can, or I find someone who can!
I have spent most of my life in EAA Chapter 377, and most of the members have watched my sisters, my brother, my cousins, and I grow up every year by attending my grandparents’ Funny Farm Fly-In. When I moved, and Mary (our newsletter editor) can attest to this, finding another group of aviation enthusiasts like our chapter was extremely difficult. The other groups I checked out were more of just once a year or a couple of times in the summer meet-up kind of groups. Nothing like our group that meets up every month, where everyone is friendly, shares the passion of aviation, and the type of group that comes together when it’s needed most. Our chapter is like an extended family to me and others. I encourage and challenge you all to help the continued growth of EAA chapters and bring in the next generation. This isn’t just to increase our numbers, but to share the true love and compassion of aviation with the next generation.
With the recent loss of my grandpa, Jack Jenkinson, EAA 576629, someone who I looked up to my whole life, I am grateful and proud to have and be part of a chapter like this. The outpouring of care and condolences from our chapter speaks monumentally of my grandpa. He was a true advocate for aviation. He not only spoke it, though he was a man who was to the point and of few words, but he was a man of action and deeds. He introduced his family to this chapter because of his passion for aviation. With that, he brought another three generations into the fold! If one man who was passionate about aviation could introduce three generations to aviation, why can’t one person introduce just one more person to aviation?
I challenge you all to introduce aviation to just one person this year. The next time you host a fly-in, let your local school counselor know. Get ahold of your school soon; some students are looking at colleges and need direction now, not in May. Some students will be looking for summer jobs, and if they are into aviation, some airports need summer help! It will give the students a leg up on their knowledge and resume for aviation. Invite anyone with interest to lunch for more information, even if they can’t fly but love airplanes!
Any support for the industry by someone who is not a pilot, mechanic, or manager helps support local airports to keep them up and running and in good condition. We need advocates for our industry. Take one look at the airports that are closing around California and the rest of the U.S. There are not enough advocates to outweigh the general public, who are not well-informed or care about aviation. When money is tight and cuts needs to be made, airports look expensive on paper. All most people know about is commercial aviation, but they don’t know that every commercial pilot starts at a small airport in a small aircraft.