{"id":16467,"date":"2020-09-22T13:19:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=16467"},"modified":"2020-09-22T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T13:20:09","slug":"aopas-you-can-fly-program-recognizes-150th-flying-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/aopas-you-can-fly-program-recognizes-150th-flying-club\/%20","title":{"rendered":"AOPA\u2019S You Can Fly Program Recognizes 150th Flying Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo above &#8211; Bald Eagle Aviation Club operates a 1957 straight-tail Cessna 182A from Kalispell City Airport in Montana and is the 150th flying club assisted by the AOPA Flying Clubs Initiative. Photo courtesy of the Bald Eagle Aviation Club.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association recently\ncelebrated helping to create 150 new flying clubs since the Flying Clubs\ninitiative within the You Can Fly program began about five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bald Eagle Aviation Club in Kalispell, Montana, was the\nclub to receive recognition as the 150th. The Club operates a 1957\nstraight-tail Cessna 182A from Kalispell City Airport in Montana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWow\u2014150\u2014that\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d said co-founder Kevin Collom,\nwho began flying lessons in 2018 and recently learned that his club helped the\ninitiative reach the milestone. \u201cI\u2019d read about flying clubs and decided to\ncheck into our area because I\u2019d heard there was one here years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city has two airports\u2014Kalispell City Airport straddles\nthe south, and Glacier Park International Airport is to the north \u201cwhich is\ncloser to me and where I started my flight training,\u201d said Collom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Future founder Mike Whitehill, based at Kalispell City\nAirport, volunteered during the 2018 AOPA Fly-In at Missoula International\nAirport and attended a \u201cMaximum Fun\u2014Minimum Cost\u201d flying club seminar. He hoped\nto duplicate his Minnesota flying club experience after a move out West and\nhuddled with AOPA Flying Clubs Initiative Director Steve Bateman for additional\nadvice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMike found me in Missoula, and we chatted about it,\u201d\nrecalled Bateman. \u201cLots of phone calls and encouragement\u201d followed. \u201cBecause we\nwork with individuals, we know others who have common aviation goals, and we\u2019re\nable to put them together. That\u2019s exactly what happened with Kevin and Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI remember Steve asking, \u2018How close are you to Lakeside,\nMontana?\u2019 because he heard from another pilot who was thinking about starting a\nflying club at Kalispell City Airport,\u201d said Collom. When the two finally\nconnected, \u201cWe said, \u2018Shoot, this is a no-brainer.\u2019 We kind of put our heads\ntogether and said, \u2018Let\u2019s move forward.\u2019 It\u2019s awesome. We\u2019re pretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe love all of our new clubs,\u201d said Bateman, who founded\nhis own flying club in Maryland centered around a 1980 Cessna 152 Aerobat.\n\u201cBald Eagle went through tough times trying to find members before taking a\nleap of faith,\u201d explained Bateman. \u201cThey bought the airplane, they created the\nclub, and as soon as other people could see that it was real, they became\nbelievers,\u201d too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bald Eagle Aviation Club operates the 182A with a Horton\nSTOL conversion for better performance at high-altitude airports. Monthly dues\nare $150, and members are charged a $120 wet rate per tachometer hour. The\ninitial club membership is $2,050 and is transferable. There are currently\nseven members, and the group has been up and running for about four months,\nsaid Collom, who added that scheduling the aircraft among the members hasn\u2019t\nbeen a problem despite a flurry of recent activity. \u201cWe just graduated our\nfirst student about two or three weeks ago. His dad, George Weyl, is a club\nmember and a CFII, so the two flew to finish up the private pilot requirements\nand prepare for his son Kelvin\u2019s checkride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bald Eagle\u2019s first meeting included a photoshoot with a\nbanner AOPA sent to help celebrate the 150th club milestone. An airplane wash\nand a hangar get-together are in the club\u2019s future, and Collom said members are\nalready talking about buying a complex high-performance aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve put a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of hard\nwork into putting this thing together, and we couldn\u2019t have done it without\nSteve\u2019s help,\u201d Collom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKevin and I were both very committed to forming a flying\nclub, but it was a long process,\u201d said Whitehill, who advised potential club\nfounders to \u201cbe patient and be persistent. We love aviation and we want to\nshare it with others and encourage them to start flying. That\u2019s the neat thing\nabout flying clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Support from the AOPA Flying Clubs Initiative was\n\u201cinvaluable to the club in its journey from startup to operational,\u201d Whitehill\nconcurred, emphasizing that help was just a phone call away. \u201cThank you, coach\nBateman. Thank you, AOPA. You are the best!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AOPA Flying Clubs Initiative is one component of the You\nCan Fly program, which is funded by the AOPA Foundation and is designed to get\npeople flying and keep them flying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo above &#8211; Bald Eagle Aviation Club operates a 1957 straight-tail Cessna 182A from Kalispell City Airport in Montana and is the 150th flying club assisted by the AOPA Flying Clubs Initiative. Photo courtesy of the Bald Eagle Aviation Club. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association recently celebrated helping to create 150 new flying clubs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bald-Eagle-Flying-Club-AOPA.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16471,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16467\/revisions\/16471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}