Young Mensans Go Soaring
Guy Rosenschein

The Young Mensan airport outing was held on October 4, 1998 at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, Long Island. Cloudy weather caused some last minute cancellations but those that showed up had a great time.

Airport security, staffed by Mike and Brian, allowed us into their top secret office, where all the activity of the airport is carefully monitored. We saw the emergency pole that allows the fire crew to get to the rescue vehicles without wasting time, but we did not use it to go to these vehicles, we went down the stairs.

The Young Mensans were allowed on board the fire and rescue vehicles and it was explained to them how they work and how the rescue system works. There was even a show of sirens and lights. Our thanks to airport security for their help.

Before and after that tour, the Young Mensans watched many different types of airplanes taking off and landing, with the additional help (?) of my explanations. The terminal was unlike any you might expect to see at another airport. It was filled with a huge collection of model aircraft and the walls were covered with pictures from aviation history and of more aircraft. (see Young Mensan Album Page 1.)

Next we went out on the field to see an old "warbird", a single propeller Navion aircraft from the World War II era. If you looked carefully, you could see where the enemy plane decals had been. The Navion was in a pretty good condition. I had flown it to Chicago only a few weeks earlier. (see Young Mensan Album Page 2.) After some more explanations we moved on to a modern plane, a Piper Archer, in order to go flying.

I took the Young Mensans on a short flight to Bayport Aerodrome, a small grass runway south of Islip. We landed and then headed back to Republic Airport over-flying Fire Island, the Lighthouse on it and Captree Bridge. Only a small part of the general population can say they've landed on and taken off from a grass runway.

At the end of the day, each Young Mensan received a Young Eagles Association certificate and left with many exciting memories and stories to tell.