Neighbor, meet your airport

Frederick Municipal Airport opened on April 17, 1946. Located alongside the Monocacy River, at the time it was nestled in rural farmland, close to the city of Frederick, Maryland. Fast forward 77 years, and today housing and commercial development is enveloping the airport on all sides, while aircraft traffic is steadily increasing. The airport’s location outside of the Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area makes it a reliever for Washington airports, welcoming everything from taildraggers to jets.

With the most recent batch of townhomes going up right across the street from the airfield, the city of Frederick, which owns the airport, and businesses located close to it decided that it was time to show the local population what a good neighbor an airport can be. “We were involved in most of the meetings preparing for the event,” said Kollin Stagnito, senior vice president of media and marketing at AOPA, which is headquartered right next to the field. The event wasn’t going to be a fly-in, but was conceived to showcase the airport as a community hub and a place with both career and fun possibilities.

So on September 30, under an implausibly blue sky dotted with white clouds, the Frederick Festival of Flight opened its doors at Frederick Municipal Airport to everyone who wanted to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

Turns out, a lot of people were curious about that. Shon Dempsey, assistant airport manager, said that the organizers had planned for 3,000 people to attend, but he estimated that through the course of the day the total was closer to 8,000. And there was a lot to see. AOPA’s National Aviation Community Center was turned into a playground, entertaining kids of all ages with aviation-related toys and games. There was a line to get into a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182. And talk about lines. Two helicopters were on display: An AgustaWestland AW139 from the Maryland State Police Aviation Command, which is hangared on field, and the MedStar Transport helicopter were huge attractions. Lines formed all day long to get an inside view and tour of the helicopters. Also on display were numerous aircraft owned by pilots operating out of the airport, some of them a little more exotic than others. A Hatz Classic, a Socata TB30 Epsilon, a Piper J–3 Cub, a gyrocopter, and various other aircraft attracted a lot of attention. Attendees posed for pictures in front of them, talked to the owners, and were just happy to be around.

Tailwinds Over Frederick’s Patrick Smith, positioned in the wicker basket (gondola) of one of his balloons, certainly couldn’t complain about a lack of interest. While talking to bystanders and potential customers, he let children (mostly sitting on a parent’s shoulders) release the valve that would normally feed gas into the envelope, blasting a flame above his head. The envelope, displaying the colors of the Maryland flag, was spread out on the ground, covering a vast expanse of grass.

Local firefighters brought a vehicle, which they reported was “crawling with kids.”

The event brought together a diverse crowd from all over Frederick County. There were children everywhere, being pushed around in strollers, running ahead of their parents, perching on equipment, or gazing raptly at the aircraft. Some families sat on the grass, observing the regular airport traffic take off and land, while enjoying a picnic, and many attendees were talking to the flight schools on field. Eight food trucks were on hand to sustain visitors—and they sold out before the event closed at 5 p.m. “We’ve already decided, we’re doing this again next year, “ said Brenda Tibbs, who until recently owned Bravo Flight Training Co. and still instructs there.

AOPA employees Nick Beatty and Jake Keister volunteered at the event, riding around in a blue Pickman truck, an electric vehicle that looked like a toy itself and therefore garnered as much attention as the aircraft on field. They’d mainly been working to get local aircraft from their hangars or tiedowns to the exhibit area. “People really seemed to have fun,” Keister noted. “We actually had to get them out of the way when the time came to move the aircraft back to their spaces,” Beatty added.

The Frederick Festival of Flight was a success and triggered a newfound interest in aviation in some visitors and a degree of appreciation to have an airport in the neighborhood in all visitors. Maybe the next time they hear the state police helicopter roaring overhead, they’ll know someone’s life will be saved. At the limit it showed that an airport can be part of the community and is not an elite playground for a handful of pilots.