The morning group of sixth graders from Travis Middle School and Seadrift School.

Calhoun Air Center hosted its annual Kids Day on Friday, May 8th. The weather held up and it turned into a fantastic day of learning about aviation for everyone involved. Kids Day is a field trip in which approximately 350 sixth graders from Travis Middle School, Seadrift School and Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic School visited Calhoun County Airport.
“The Calhoun Air Center has proudly continued to host this event which educates and excites the kids who attend it each year. It is my very favorite day of the year when I can see so many eager faces of the youth of Calhoun County. It’s encouraging to see the youth of Calhoun County eager to learn about aviation.” Dianna Stanger, Calhoun County Airport Manager commented. “We can’t believe it’s been six years that we’ve hosted the event — making it more than 2,100 students have visited the airport since 2009.”
There were a number of pilots with different aircraft present set up as individual stations. Each station taught the students subjects such as; the differences between an airplane and helicopter, emergency air flights, fuel management, aerodynamics, wind components, wind velocity and aircraft parts. The pilots and aircraft included: Dianna Stanger, airport manager with a Eurocopter EC120; Steve Plunkett, fixed base operator manager with a Beechcraft Premier, David Hahn, local farmer with a Maule and Larry Robinson, local pilot with a Cirrus SR22 and. The Calhoun County Fire Department, EMS and U.S. Coast Guard were also in attendance. PHI, Inc. sponsored a snow cone station and the students were delighted to cool down and choose from an assortment of delicious flavors! There were special guest appearances by PHI Inc. with their Eurocopter EC135, John Sterling with an Air Tractor, Chris Sasser of Wingtips Managing Editor at Texas A&M Transportation Institute plus U.S. Coast Guard performed training tactics on the runway.
“It’s amazing to see our local aviation community come together to show the students how great aviation can be,” said Steve Plunkett, FBO manager. “We all look forward to this day each year.”
The students were given information about various aviation organizations which offer the students the knowledge about the latest aviation technologies and scholarship opportunities, in addition aviation art calendars, ruler, pens and an assortment of other items.
“Thank you so much for the wonderful field trip that our students were able to experience today. My students were so excited about what they learned. A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers that took time out of their busy schedules to help our students learn about flight and different career opportunities,” said Diane Krause, Travis Middle School 7th grade science teacher. “Each of the stations were very informative and interesting for our students. Many were captivated by what they were learning and had many facts to share with me when they arrived back at school. They were so excited to receive the “goody” bags and loved the snow cones. It was a day many of our students will fondly remember for years to come.”

“What can a helicopter do that a plane can’t?” asked Dianna Stranger, airport manager.