NEW YEAR GREETINGS FROM THE RAF
One good thing about the year just ending is that more people got outdoors. The very best thing about 2020 was the amount of goodness and generosity you invested in the RAF and its mission.
You took on projects to benefit people you didn’t even know, nor may never meet. Some were big projects – like restoring Ryan Airfield and building a barn that aviators will appreciate for decades to come.
You helped save Goodspeed airport in Connecticut – a big win and a great story of good people doing good work with a good outcome. Saving Isle Airport in Minnesota was another group effort with a successful outcome. You helped mow turf runways, build privies, picnic tables, and pavilions, you rounded up loaner bicycles, all projects to make recreational flying more fun.
All the 2020 projects had one thing in common: people of the RAF giving. Giving time, expertise, money and most importantly, their will and energy to get something done that will last – maybe for generations – because that will is fired by our desire to leave things better than we found them.
There were many things about last year I would prefer to change, but one thing I would like to keep is the goodwill of 2020. I’m thankful to be a part of an organization that chooses a path of giving rather than taking. Making things better, even in small ways, because they add up and in the end make a big difference. So thank you for your goodwill and thank you for leaving things better than you found them in 2020.
I’m looking forward to that energy to get more good things done this coming New Year.
Bill McGlynn
RAF President
Photo Credit: John Roberts; 2020 RAF Photo Contest Submission; Meadow Creek, MT
Howdy Everyone,
Reading this article published by Bill McGlynn, (RAF President), the statement really hits home. While I am in the northern part of the state of Maine, USA, what goes on out west at the RAF filters throughout the country. The work conducted by the RAF to maintain, build, and keep open these remote airfields is so valuable to everyone in aviation.
The RAF has been good to me. This past year, I have been working with Andy Rowe, (Maine State Liaison), the RAF has given a partial grant to lengthen our airfield to be more accessible to the general aviation public, be safer for a more diverse array of aircraft, and provide a destination for folks to fly to and experience the way aviation should be experienced.
While New England has a large population, the existence of these “Backcountry Airfields” has been diminishing greatly. The small private airfields that do exist are either too small or so unimproved, that GA aircraft can not use them safely, or the owners are reluctant to open them for public use. Folks need this kind of organization to represent all aviators.
My personal views align with the spirit which the RAF has in mind, to allow folks to use their aircraft in the way our forefathers used them. I have met many folks over the years looking for the way to use their aircraft for this type of experience. The RAF is making it possible all over the country.
With that said, I wish to thank once again, the RAF for their donation to my airfield extension. I hope that I can repay with interest all that the RAF is doing for this remote airfield. I encourage everyone to please donate to this organization, not only for ourselves, but for the future of our children.
Ken “COWBOY” Winiarski
Cowboys Air Ranch “84ME”