You remember, don't you, when you first fell in love with aviation? Perhaps it was a warm, sunny day with a jeweled, blue morning sky beckoning you to the airport on your trusty Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle. Maybe you crouched in the tall, brown grass by the run-up area, the stiff propeller wash blowing your hair. You blocked the sun with your hand and gazed up in wonder. Maybe a kind pilot saw you there, shook his head with a knowing smile and opened his airplane's door for you while adjusting his Ray-Bans. Maybe that day you fell in love with flying and never looked back.rnAviation, however, has undergone a drastic change in the last decade. You won't see any kids or bikes anywhere nearrnrun-up areas anymore. Neighborhoods have encroached on our local airports, and few residents, if any, appreciate the airplanes buzzing over their manicured lawns. Most pilots would be afraid of offering some random kid a ride in their airplane and, anyway, kids are too busy with their iPhones and Internet socializing to care about those tired airplanes creaking in the wind at the local field.
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