June 22nd was the City of Fullerton's Airport Day and thanks to Tom Mauss, the Austin Healey Association was the only car club invited to show our cars. The 6th annual event featured displays of vintage and modern aircraft, classic automobiles, aviation-related exhibits, aircraft fly-bys, booths and vendors, helicopter and plane rides all day long, and activities for children and adults. We had eight cars show up and we attracted quite a bit of attention, as many of the several thousands of attendees dropped by to visit or just look.
It was interesting for us as well as the airport had numerous flyovers, simulated helicopter rescues and water drops, a CHP chase down the runway with a CHP car and motorcycle and a helicopter in pursuit of a......white Ford Bronco! Commander Chuck Street, as many of you long time commuters may remember, was MC for the day. The airport has a restaurant and there were food trucks and a Stone Brewing truck and many other amenities.
The highlight for me was touring a 1943 DC-3 that participated in D-Day. Talkative Tony Trentacost managed to get invited out onto the apron to have a picture taken with a 1952 Chipmunk, a Canadian de Havilland manufactured aircraft. The early positioning of our cars enabled us to tour the grounds and displays, avoiding the long lines to come. It also gave us time to spend at our cars answering questions and accepting compliments.
Attending were Tom Mauss, Tony Trentatcost, Tom Spangler, Jay Miller, Greg Aden, Bob Bolling, Chuck Lakowski and George Merino.