Williamson County Airshow

Dear Editor:

I enjoyed seeing the Williamson County Airshow in the Sept. 22 edition of the Daily Egyptian. I am also very happy to see Sue Dacy and her beautiful Stearman, Big Red, make the cover.

However, I am disappointed that Rotor and Wing Association of American (RWAA), a Registered Student Organization at SIUC, was not even mentioned. Being a former president of this organization, I know how integral it is to the airshow. RWAA runs all airport operations during the airshow. We handle crowd control, fueling (with the help of a professional and knowledgeable Aeroflight line crew), parking aircraft, safety of the spectators, etc.

We would even have been responsible for parking cars had the Civil Air Patrol not volunteered.

The lack of recognition we have received for running the Williamson Country Airshows since they began in 2001, runny the Southern Illinois Airport‚s 50th Anniversary Airshow in 2000, runny the airshows in Mt. Vernon since 2001 and the one in Harrisburg, show me the quality of the reporters at the DE.

So I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank our members. If it were not for you, these airshows would not happen. You are invaluable to their operation. I want you to know how much you are appreciated by myself, Doug Kimmel, the county and the performers. It is the little things you do that keep these performers coming back to our little airshows in Southern Illinois instead of going to a larger show elsewhere.

I would like to say a special thanks to our faculty adviser, Dr. Charles Rodriguez. He is the most amazing man I have ever met. It is because of his dedication and innate ability to lead that RWAA is by far the best RSO ever and the only student organization in the county that takes upon itself such a complicated task each year. If every professor here cared as much about his or her students and the local community as he does, SIUC would be the best university in the country in all aspects. It is because of professors like Rodriguez that our Aviation Technologies Program is one of the highest ranking programs in the world.

I also want to thank the Department of Aviation Technologies for their commitment to excellence. It is because of the quality of education they offer that Rotor and Wing has the highest quality leaders out of all the student body.

I want to thank all of the RWAA officers for a job well done. I want to give special thanks to: Aeroflight, if not for you Skip Stewart would not have been able to make his second performance Sunday; Mike Barsky for helping out so much in all aspects; Ashley Carder and Doug Knorr for successfully and safely running the Static Ramp, because of them we have had no accidents;

Steve Jakubowski and Gary Rowton for running the Hot Ramp and keeping the performers so happy; and of course to all of the Rotor and Wingers who came and helped out. People do not understand what you guys really do for and mean to this community. Without you behind the scenes, this airshow would not happen. I look forward to working with you all again next year.

Donald Gilmore senior in electrical engineering and aviation technologies alumni

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