AOPA Fly-ins: What a weekend

AOPA Fly-Ins should make your destination bucket list this year

March 1, 2019 By Julie Summers Walker

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After five years of putting on some of the best aviation events of the year, AOPA is returning to a couple of its favorite destinations on its 2019 fly-in schedule. And with two full days of great workshops, seminars, events, and get togethers, you’ll want these on your destination bucket list for 2019.

First up, a return to Frederick, Maryland (FDK), home to AOPA headquarters, to help celebrate the association’s eightieth anniversary. AOPA was founded in May 1939 so a celebration is in order; join us May 10 and 11 for two days of education, inspiration, and fun. Not only is Frederick located near some of the most historic sites in the country—the nation’s capital, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Baltimore Harbor (Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner on a ship in the harbor; his gravesite is in Frederick's Mount Olivet cemetery)—but this weekend coincides with the annual Joint Base Andrews Air Show.

AOPA will host a flyover of the D-Day Squadron (which is on its way to Normandy in June) that will take place at Frederick, as well as reenactment parachute drops on both days.

AOPA headquarters will be open for tours, including the newly installed association museum honoring AOPA’s eigthieth anniversary. Come tour the 19,000-square foot You Can Fly Academy with its 73-seat auditorium, classrooms, and full-motion simulators. Also plan to visit the association’s National Aviation Community Center where we have more classrooms, and our association hangars.

Next stop is Livermore, California (LVK), June 21 and 22 for AOPA’s first visit to the San Francisco Bay Area. See Alcatraz, visit the Golden Gate Bridge, tour Napa Valley, and try some Ghirardelli chocolate. In September we return to another favorite, Tullahoma, Tennessee (THA), home of the Beechcraft Heritage Museum and the George Dickel and Jack Daniel’s distilleries. We’ll be there September 13 and 14, a beautiful time of year in Tennessee.

The two-day events will feature paid ground school workshops and free seminars each day. If you’d like, you can spend your time immersed in VFR and IFR advanced skill workshops that will qualify as ground school logbook endorsements; $99 will cover two days of intense workshop experiences. Both days will also feature free seminars on a variety of topics ranging from skills and safety to product demonstrations and inspirational seminars. AOPA President Mark Baker will present his Pilot Town Hall both days. Friday night will feature evening events with a STOL Invitational and night drone shows; pancake breakfasts and luncheons each day, too.

Email [email protected]

Web: www.aopa.org/fly-ins