Grissom Festival is child's play

By CASEY MELLADY
Tribune Staff Writer
Saturday, October 01, 2005

In an event geared towards people of all ages, children's activities have certainly not been left out of the plans for the Grissom Air Museum's Festival of Flight.

Children of all ages from throughout the state will be able to enjoy Saturday's festivities from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with price for admission ranging from zero dollars for those ages six and under to $3 for all other kids.

There will be at least 13 different activities directed towards children, some of which could cater to the adults as well.

"The cockpit and boom pod simulators are real popular with kids and adults both," said John Marsh, executive director of the Grissom Air Museum.

Sitting in the cockpit simulator entails lights and sounds associated with flying the plane, while the boom pod simulator emulates an in-flight refueling mission.

"It's a simulation where you plug a boom into a receiving plane," Marsh explained. "The receiving plane shows up on a plasma-screen television."

For the younger children, the National Museum of Model Aviation will be helping make rubber band planes for flying and to keep and take home as well.

Also for the younger children, there will be pedal planes, which are metal toy planes reproduced from the 1940s.

The Hoosier Kite Flyer Society will be making kites for the children.

"They'll be simple sled kites - and if we get some wind - the kids can fly it there and take it home with them," Marsh said.

Also on hand will be two inflatable obstacles to bounce around in and crawl through.

Some local Cub Scouts will be taking part in the "Space Derby," which is a race between homemade rockets that travel via wound up rubber bands.

For some of the older children, Woody's Maze is bringing a corn cannon, which uses compressed air to shoot a corn cob.

The Model Aviation Museum is bringing a remote-control plane simulator, which mimics the controls on a remote-controlled plane as opposed to a real plane.

A retired aviation navigator will be demonstrating how to take a reading of the sun and determine a location with quick calculations.

"It's how they calculated before the days of GPS," Marsh said.

The Miami County Amateur Radio Club will be setting up a tower, and depending on weather conditions, should be able to talk to people worldwide via ham radio.

Civil air patrol cadets from around the state will be launching six homemade rockets at a time during the day while remote-control shows aren't going on.

Also, young contestants from around the state will be rewarded for their submissions to the Aviation Art Contest.

"The judging was held on Monday and at 4:30 on the main stage we'll give out awards," Marsh said. "We had over 900 entries from around the state this year and we'll give out 60 awards. It just keeps getting bigger each year."

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