Aviation Students' Air-Show Volunteerism Draws Enviable Reward

Several Penn College aviation students volunteered to assist the Lycoming County Rotary Clubs with this year’s "Balloonfest, Air Show &  So Much More," held Saturday at the Hughesville Fairgrounds. During the event, Team Aerodynamix performed daylight and dusk formation-aerobatics routines and Jeff Maurer of WOW Airshows offered a daytime aerobatics show. The first-year students ensured the air-show aircraft were full of the special smoke-producing oil that the performers use to leave trails in the sky. In addition, some of the students volunteered to staff the gates at the event. To show their appreciation for early volunteers, Team Aerodynamix invited Emily M. Ritt, an aviation technology major from Medford Lakes, N.J., and Kathreen D. Larsen, an aviation maintenance technology student from Clinton Corners, N.Y.,  to join the sponsor ride that preceded the aerobatics demonstrations. Penn College sponsored a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program in which air-show pilots Len “Leggs” Leggette, Jerry “Widget” Morris and Mike “Kahuna” Stewart visited four area junior high schools to talk about the science of flight.
Photos by Thomas D. Inman, associate professor of aviation