I’m drinking tea this morning, and thinking about my last interview of the show. Yep, I promised Harold Kurtz I would have a proper mug of tea for him…my best wishes to you, sir!
I did three interviews yesterday morning: Lutz Pritschow (an air traffic controller in Frankfort), a second part with Mike Leone, and an interview with WWII veteran and missionary pilot, Harold Kurtz.
I’ll explain about the tea in the next post…it’s a story worth telling, I promise, along with posting my last pictures and videos. Over all, I interviewed over a dozen people, Tracy talked to about four or so, Zack about five or six (since he’s pulled in about 800 different directions during the show, that’s pretty good…some years, he barely manages one or two).
During this week, I met up with old friends and met lots of new people. I also managed to walk a few miles, rush off to technical forums, watch ultralight aircraft go flying at sunset with Tracy, walk through rows of airplanes in the middle of a downpour with a big wet grin on my face, and sunburn my tonsils watching Patty Wagstaff make her airplane do impossible acts in the air…along with about 40 or 50 other performers. I saw the past, the present, and the future of air and space travel, and I spent some 20 hours talking to the people who make it all happen…one-on-one.
This was a big week. Many of us, myself included, expected attendance to be down between the economy and fuel prices. Instead, we had record crowds early on…camping and airplane parking filled up earlier than every before. There was something here for everyone, from hardcore technical forums for geeks like me to a soggy performance by the Doobie Brothers and a capacity crowd to hear Captain Sully explain just how you set an airliner down on the Potomac!
Zack, Tracy, the fabulous Mel Smith, and a couple of other people were honored for our work with the Timeless Voices program on Wednesday morning. Stood on a stage, had pictures, plaques, the whole nine yards. Adam Smith also announced that young Zachary will be going up for a flight in an AT-6, the advanced trainer used prepare pilots for their transition to fighter aircraft in WWII…he’s very happy about this!
At any rate, this morning I need to catch up on some client communications. I’m happy to be back at work, feeling quite charged up after this experience. Ah, what a terrific week!