Dan Luke wrote:

Exactly so. Many pilots apparently don't realize that it is not necessary
to fly a bunch of missions to be an AF pilot. Even if you can only fly one
or two a year, it helps.

When I give talks on AF, of of the questions is "What kind of pilot and
airplane is AF looking for." My stock answer is: "Well, preferrably a
retired ATP who just won the lottery and has his own Gulfstream! What
we are happy to get, however, is anyone with a private pilots license
and who wants to help. We have high time pilots who have lots of money
and lots of time to donate, and who fly several times a week. We also
have college students who have to collect empty pop bottles on the
sides of the road to get enough money to rent a C-172 for a single
mission a year. Doesn't matter - each and every one of those missions
helps someone, and that's what we are looking for."

Related to this thread: We have a similar burn camp down here in
Texas. A few years ago I was flying a brother and somewhat older
sister back from the camp. Big bunch of planes met them at the
airport, a hundred kids coming home from camp - all running around with
piles of dirty clothes and wanting to show off the crafts projects they
had made.

An interesting thing about our camp (and maybe others) is that
typically EVERYONE there is a burn survivor, including the staff. They
try to hold it every summer, and the kids really seem to enjoy it.

So I load up these two kids and we head back towards their home town a
few hundred miles away. The younger boy (about 10) gets tired pretty
quickly and falls asleep, but the sister and I talk a bit about the
camp. As you would imagine, she had all the usual tales to tell. She
talked about all the things they had done, all the activities... Then
she got real quiet, and I saw a bit of a tear in one eye.

"You know," she said, "that's the first time since the accident six
years ago that I wasn't 'different.' I've got lots of friends at
school, and all that, but there, even with my friends, I'm, you know,
the burned one. At camp... well, we were all just *us*."

A flight well worth the AVGAS.

James Knox
Director - AFSC