Membership Services
Sweepstakes SR22 flies into Andrews Air Force Base
Andrews Air Force Base is only 44 nautical miles from AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Md., but it’s a world apart.
Getting there begins with filling out a stack of military paperwork and online TSA applications, and getting permission to fly to the home of Air Force One, deep within Washington, D.C.’s most tightly guarded flight restricted zone, can be a saga in itself.
But the Let’s Go Flying mission of expanding the U.S. pilot population by showing off general aviation’s excitement and possibilities requires public outreach. And Andrews hosts one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious airshows, the annual Joint Services Open House, an event that draws 150,000 or more aviation enthusiasts on a spring weekend every year.
This year AOPA displayed an aircraft for the first time at Andrews, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Military pilots and air crews were amazed at the advanced avionics, airframe parachute, speed, and range of the Let’s Go Flying SR22. Nonpilots had no idea that such technology was available in modern GA aircraft. And many AOPA members who attend the event to watch the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, F-22 Raptor, and civilian aerobatic performers including Sean D. Tucker and Greg Poe, said they were pleased to see GA playing a visible role.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Dane Nielsen flies Gulfstream jets from Andrews. But he and fellow pilots took time out for a cockpit tour of the glass-panel SR22, and they said they were favorably impressed.
“This is an extremely capable aircraft,” he said. “It’s so different from the single-engine, piston airplanes I grew up flying that they’re hardly comparable.”
Children who attended the airshow with their parents seemed unsurprised (and not intimidated) by the airplane’s computer technology. And parents compared the airplane’s roomy, leather interior to their favorite luxury cars.
AOPA staff members handed out information on the myriad ways aviation enthusiasts can become GA pilots and answered questions about the annual AOPA sweepstakes in which the organization gives away an airplane to a current or aspiring pilot.
The Let’s Go Flying SR22 seemed tiny when surrounded by gargantuan military bombers and transports at the military base. A nearby C-5 Galaxy and B-52 cast long shadows over the diminutive SR22.
When it was time to leave on Sunday evening, the SR22 taxied to the north-facing runway between a hulking, four-engine, C-17 Globemaster and a bulbous C-130 Hercules turboprop.
The short trip back to the civilian flying world outside the red ring of the Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area began with a kind word from the military hosts at Andrews.
“Thanks for coming, Cirrus,” a military air traffic controller said. “Come back again soon.”
May 19, 2009
