Saying Thanks - LAC’s First Responders Fly-by

by Nick Poucher

Back on June 12, 2020, three Lakeland Aero Club members and our President pushed our airplanes out of our hangar for a fly-by to show support for our medical heroes and first responders. Just three weeks earlier a small group of Aero Club members were eating lunch in the midst of a global pandemic trying to figure out a plan for how our club would be able to operate in the future. As a youth flight club we have a unique situation in that it is not an option to totally shut down our flight operations for a prolonged amount of time. While we are able to limit flight operations it is in the best interest of our pilots to remain proficient and our aircraft to continue flying. It is also our belief at the Lakeland Aero Club that teaching and practicing formation flying is one of the best ways to create better skilled and sharper pilots. While some of our members began talking about how and when we would be able to go up and do some formation practice the idea to do a fly-by of our local hospital came up. When we came back to the idea and started planning for what we would need to do to pull off the fly-by, one of our members who was volunteering with the fire department threw out the idea of also flying by the fire station. Soon it went from just the hospital to also including the Lakeland fire department, Lakeland police department, and multiple Polk county sheriff’s office substations and became an event to support our local community. Specifically the people who still had to go to work and put themselves at risk while most people stayed home due to COVID-19.