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| By The Aero Experience Team |
The Aero Experience looks back on the last three weeks (or so) of covering Midwest Aviation with this review of a still busy December. We had a very productive 2022, with much work remaining on future stories and events through the New Year. Check back with The Aero Experience again for more previews on what the coming year holds for Midwest Aviation!Gateway Youth Aeronautical Foundation, Creve Coeur Airport
The Gateway Youth Aeronautical Foundation (GYAF) continues to grow and inspire youth interest in aviation at their Creve Coeur Airport facility. A recent year-end flurry of activity has produced significant results for current and future education programs.
The GYAF has recently taken delivery of two significant airframes destined for use in public programs in the coming year. In mid-November, GYAF retrieved a Bell Helicopter OH-58A from the Jackson County Sheriff's Office in Marianna, FL through GSA Auctions. The airframe will be transformed into an orientation/simulation device for the Foundation's aviation education program. More recently, the GYAF also received delivery of NASA's first F-16 flight simulator from the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. This device will showcase the innovative fly-by-wire control system and side-stick-controller pioneered by the F-16 in the mid 1970s. Both are featured below with GYAF Founder Joe Steimann. Updates to these projects will be featured throughout the coming year.
The GYAF is also continually updating their Virtual Reality Flight Simulation Lab to include more aircraft and program options for visitors to enjoy. An Introduction to Flight Program is now under development for area STEM classes and those interested in progressing to Discovery Flights with sponsor Piston Aviation, also located at Creve Coeur Airport. This report on recent visitors was provided by Joe Steimann:
One future pilot, and three former F-4 Phantom pilots, having a great time at the flight simulators!
Tim and his family drove all the way up from Desoto to check out the Gateway Youth Aeronautical Foundation.
Gene Bates and his son Braxton are checking out the F-4 Cockpit. Gene is a helicopter pilot for a Police department and flies OH-58s and OH-6s and is a part time pilot on the UH-60.
Gateway Flight Training, also located at Creve Coeur Airport, serves the aviation community with a comprehensive flight training program and expanding fleet of highly-capable aircraft. We regularly feature their Piper Cherokee and Archer training and rental aircraft in our monthly coverage of Gateway Flight Training activities, and we are also tracking the progress of the fleet expansion that will take place in the coming months. Gateway Flight Training (as Gateway Flight Solutions) is an authorized Avidyne, Aspen and Dynon product dealer, and they are upgrading the avionics in the C172RG and C310 featured below as the aircraft are prepared for fleet service. We will have more in-depth coverage of each aircraft in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, December 21, Gateway Flight Training hosted a holiday luncheon for airport tenants. It was great to visit with our airport family and send out our best wishes for a happy holiday season. A highlight of the day was watching Intern Sarah Bauer try on her newly gifted headset.
Big River Aviation is always a busy place, with aircraft rotating in and out of the West Terminal hangar for long and short-term maintenance service. During our visit this week, we captured some photo and video media for upcoming feature stories and updates on past projects that we will include in future posts.
Big River Aviation provides aircraft maintenance services for AeroCareers, a non-profit organization that offers career education, networking and mentoring opportunities for those entering the aerospace industry. Parked next to each other in the hangar were the aircraft used in their community outreach programs: Lancair Columbia 300, The New Spirit of St. Louis, flown by Erik Lindbergh to recreate his grandfather's transatlantic flight in 2002, and the Cessna 172 used for Young Eagle Flights and flight training through the AeroCareers Flying Club. The Columbia is being inspected and returned to flight after being stored in a neighboring hangar for over a decade. The C172 is receiving an avionics upgrade, shown below with AeroCareer's Nick Turk, to provide four-way communications capability for the rear-seat passengers that was originally lacking in this model of the Skyhawk. We will provide updates on these projects as well as they are completed.
We will have more year-end updates, including our signature General Aviation (and More!) Survey, in the coming week. The Aero Experience thanks you for supporting our work for over a decade, and we look forward to the beginning of the New Year!
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