I’m discovering lately that sometimes, if you just ask, people are more than willing to share what they do with you. This has come up a lot when I scheduled field trips for this summer. When I called the small local airport to see if we could come out and see a real airport, they sounded a little surprised. They asked what we wanted to see, and were more than accommodating.
After I got off the phone it dawned on me that the reason he seemed a little surprised is probably that no one ever really takes a field trip out there. It’s a small facility and it doesn’t get a lot of traffic. But for us? A perfect outing.
We began with a tour of the hanger where they keep a few privately owned planes. Then we got to take a full tour of their personal plane, first on the outside and then each child got to go inside. And after our tour was over, we got to watch a plane taxi and take off. An added bonus? A helicopter that was practicing on one of the landing strips, taking off and landing over and over.
Sometimes I grumble about this small town we live in, but the familiarity it breeds often opens up doors we might not dare to knock on in the Big City.