The public was welcomed onto the tarmac of the Long Beach Airport for the Festival of Flight on Saturday, Nov. 6 .
“I’m loving it,” said Matthew Stuhler of Angel City Flyers. “I think this is actually great, I think it’s a great way to give back and get the community involved in what we do here.”
The annual community event was canceled last year due to the pandemic.
“It’s disappointing, but you’ve got bigger issues,” said Craig Roah, CEO of OCR Aviation, concerning the cancellation of last year’s event. “People have worse things going on than us missing an aviation show.”
Numerous small and large aircraft were on display as attendees circled them and took photos.
While planes were put on display for this year’s Festival of Flight, the event did not include any inside tours of the aircraft which were popular in past years.
Planes were brought and displayed by flight schools, nonprofits, and aviation enthusiast groups.
Among the most colorful small aircraft was a Cessna belonging to the nonprofit SafeLaunch, covered in young artists’ hand-painted illustrations.
The plane is a symbol used in its Flights Above Addiction Program.
The SafeLaunch plane travels to aviation events across the nation. Youth are invited to paint on the plane’s fuselage and make a pledge not to use drugs or alcohol before they turn 21.
SafeLaunch was founded over a decade ago by Janet Rowse and retired Navy Commander Ron Cuff, and has participated in the Festival of Flight three times before. The organization brings attention to and combats substance addiction in minors.
Cuff, who served as a carrier pilot in the Navy, took off and landed from aircraft carriers at sea for 120 missions, according to SafeLaunch member Janet Rowse.
“[Cuff] was launched and recovered safely because the entire crew was focused on the pilot’s safety,” Rowse said.
SafeLaunch uses the coordination needed on aircraft carriers as a metaphor for how communities have to work together to prevent addiction in youth.
“The plane represents safely launching children into adulthood without addiction,” Rowse said. “In the same way that it takes a whole aircraft carrier to recover those pilots and keep them safe, it takes a whole community to keep our children safe.”
Editor’s Note: Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 11:52 a.m. This story was updated to reflect that Janet Rowse is a cofounder of SafeLaunch.
The Long Beach Festival of Flight 2021 was like a breath of fresh air! It was fabulous to see people, masks and all, out enjoying a terrific community event for the whole family. SafeLaunch brought “the canvas shaped like a Cessna” to the event to inspire young families to focus on the developing brain and keep it safe from intoxicants until age 21 to prevent substance use disorder. Find out why age of first use is crucially important at http://www.safelaunch.org.