Roarrr for Rick!

Here's a big Roar for Lion Rick Hamlin who promoted Wellington and the Sumner County Aviation Festival during stops at 26 airports across the state of Kansas during the All Kansas Air Tour. His Super Ryan was a crowd-pleaser as always, and Hamlin was named the event's Pathfinder - leading all the pilots from one stop to the next.

Aside from the Super Ryan, this plane was my favorite, it smiled at me.




Thanks Lion Rick!

It's a GO!

It's so exciting! There are so many headliners of this year's Sumner County Air Show I don't know what to be the most excited about! In so many ways, we are putting together an event unlike we've ever had in the past. Louder and faster jets, more vintage aircraft, headlining military performances, four times as many professional air show performances, more radio-controlled jets, more booths and displays from military and local vendors, plus skydiving, plus the Young Eagles, not to mention all the great food, fun carnival games, and hot air ballooning!! It's just amazing to think of what we've got ahead of us!

Our Club has successfully requested a huge military air show performance, which will completely SHAKE the community of Wellington it's going to be so fast and so loud and so THRILLING! ... but we're not supposed to say quite yet which aircraft will be performing. ;-)

At the same time, local radio station 107.9 is working very hard to bring in a top-notch Country singer whose American-themed songs would fit perfectly with the show. Once that contract has been negotiated, we can announce the big entertainment for Saturday night. And, really, I mean BIG entertainment. The radio station is taking on the concert and will work in lots and lots of publicity for our event as well... The concert alone will bring in thousands, and of course we're all hoping they get to the Wellington Municipal Airport early and make a day of it!

We will now begin an aggressive fundraising campaign to bring in the air show performances of Matt Younkin and Kyle Franklin. Last year we had the big and beautiful Twin Beech perform, and we didn't hardly get a taste of their complete act. They've got more aircrafts, more aerobatics, more style and air show presence than a tiny little Lions Club Air Show could ever hope for...

The C-47 Skytrain (scroll down for an earlier entry on this) is also coming to the air show. This is the first part of the air show that fits into this year's emphasis on getting more people into the skies. We wanted more than the Young Eagles, skydivers and hot air balloons to offer as rides this year, and the C-47 Skytrain will give festival-goers the opportunity to take a ride in a huge, vintage aircraft that seats almost 20 at a time. It's going to be an amazing flight, and I say that with confidence that I'll be riding in that big beauty when it gets here!

Then there's the P-51 Mustang, a single-seater, the kind of aircraft that has true American history, that demands respect, and that just looks cooler than cool from the pictures I've seen. You can do a You Tube search for the P-51 Heritage Flight and see some of its performances at other air shows... It looks so cool up in the sky. I can't wait to see it flying over Wellington!

And, a favorite in Wellington, the hot air balloons are also part of the event! This year we're working with the balloon meisters who organize the annual hot air balloon event in Anthony, Kan., which I believe is held the first weekend of May. They always make such an impression at the elementary schools, which they visit on Friday morning, prior to the air show. They set up on the school grounds, and in years past have even given tethered rides to some of the principals! The kids love the hot air balloons at the schools, and I love them first thing Saturday morning when they all launch from the air field together and my family then gets on the chase to watch them float across the county. It's an amazing ride, and you can take that to mean either the one in the hot air balloon or the one for the balloon chasers!

And of course, we wouldn't leave out the carnival! For anyone whose never been to the event before, this is a good place to mention the procedure for admission at the gate. Our Lions Club and several businesses in Wellington will be selling wristbands in advance, and at a slightly increased price at the gates. But once inside the festival at the airport, everything else is free entertainment. There is NO additional charge for any of the air show performances, of course, but the carnival rides are also free. The carnival we bring in has a few rides for older festival-goers, and of course the Ferris Wheel is a favorite of everyone's, but they also bring in several rides that are fun for even the youngest toddlers, all the way up to the faster and crazier rides for the older kids. Hours and hours can be spent, and kids can get in line for their favorite rides as many times as they like, and there's NO charge at all! (That said, as a Lions Club we've got some serious fundraising to do!)

So anyways, for those of you who have been wondering what exactly this air show will entail, we've got quite a lot planned! Keep looking here for the big announcements from the military performance and the evening's concert (which will have separate admission from the aviation festival.) And always, more more more!

Dusti
fanslerdusti@gmail.com

*The above photo mosaic was used with my favorite photographs on my Flickr account. Following the link, you can find all those photographs and their orignal photographers, as well as photos of the last three years of Sumner County Aviation Festivals.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanslerdusti/sets/