By: Angela Satterlee
For International Young Eagles Day, EAA Chapter 1682, led by Bill Wright, EAA 663877, was busy putting together the first Young Eagles rally at its local airport in Cleveland, Oklahoma. Glen Dresback, EAA 709722, and his wife Cynthia Dresback, EAA 1587696, were influential in orchestrating the event and they were able to produce an amazing turnout.
Chapter 1682 hosted a Young Eagles rally in a previous year in Westport, Oklahoma, but the turnout wasn’t great, so Glen knew they needed to try it again and take a different approach. “I suggested doing one at Cleveland because that we could get a lot more kids because Cleveland is a much bigger town, but with fewer pilots,” Glen said. “We really pushed getting the word out to the town and [put] advertisements in the paper and posted things on Facebook and all over the place. It is probably the biggest thing that’s happened at the Cleveland Airport since the 1980s!”
The school district that Cynthia works for has recently added an aviation course to the high school that is supported by the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission. That program brought in large numbers of students who are interested in being pilots and learning more about general aviation. “We’ve had a lot of people asking about the aviation classes and the school as well as where you can do the aviation classes to learn how to fly,” Glen said. “We’ve had a lot of people ask again about when we’re doing it again because they couldn’t come out and [there’s] just a flood of interest in the airport and in aviation that wasn’t there.”
Glen, along with four other pilots, flew a total of 86 Young Eagles. The event was only scheduled from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. but the crowd was so large that flights were ongoing until after 1:30 p.m. to ensure that every kid got to have time in an airplane. Alongside the flights there were lounging areas and tons of outdoor games to keep the kids busy while they were waiting for their turn in the air.
Of the five pilots, there were a variety of aircraft including a Cessna 182, a Lark Commander, a Piper Comanche, and two Ryan Navions, including Glen’s 1949 Ryan Navion A. There was also a surprise appearance from an ultralight.
Before the Young Eagles rally, Cleveland Municipal Airport (95F) wasn’t seeing much love, but now there are set plans for renovation. “The city was doing almost no maintenance out there, and now there’s a real interest in doing a lot of work out there to try and make improvements on the hangars and on the big hangar and even the lounge and gas,” Glen said. “Suddenly there’s now a push to fix the place up better and it really has changed direction on both the airport and on the interest in the community, especially with the young people.”
“The city manager came out during the Young Eagles event and was just thrilled and very happy to see there was scads of people out there… we had a line all the way out to the parking lot,” Glen said. “He was amazed, but very happy to see all that.”
Glen and Cynthia are still getting stopped and asked about the event and interest for aviation continues to grow in their small town!