Geekdoms Collide Saturday at Udvar-Hazy

This Saturday morning at 10 AM EST, the earth will move … or stop I guess, whichever is cooler I guess. For me, it means the first time that I’m going to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian at Washington Dulles Airport.

I’ve been meaning to visit for years and what’s better than choosing the weekend they’ll be running their annual Become a Pilot Day and aviation display. As a lifelong aviation educator, there’s nothing I like more than talking about airplanes or trying to convince people that they’re as hypnotic as I’ve found them all my life.

But as enamored as I’m sure I’ll be when I arrive in DC tomorrow, nothing will quite compare with the fact that on Saturday morning at 10 AM, the guys from my alter-ego radio show, The Airplane Geeks, will be producing our show live near the Junkers and across the aisle from the Enola Gay. If you’ve listened to the show, you know how much fun we have. What goes on behind the scenes though is even a bigger hoot though I must tell you.

What makes this a particularly ground-shaking moment for all of us, is that the show on Saturday at the Udvar-Hazy Center will be the first time that all of the geeks have ever met in person, as well as producing a live show as well. Good Grief!

What if we hate each other when we meet? Luckily there will be a few noted bloggers on hand to play relationship cop if needed. One lady everyone knows is Benet Wilson from Aviation Week. Our hosts at the center on Saturday and the people that invited us (boy I hope they don’t end up regretting this) are Milford and Charlie from FlightTime Radio in Florida. So a big thanks to these guys for being brave enough to invite us to join them.

We also need to give a big shout out to all our Airplane Geeks listeners, especially the 18 of you who donated some of your hard-earned cash to help send the Geeks to DC. It is very much appreciated. Listeners actually donated more money in the end than we needed so we’ll be handing a nice donation check of to the scholarship fund of Women in Aviation.

If you’re in the DC area on Saturday morning and want to come down and say hi to me, Rob Mark from Jetwhine, or Max Flight from Thirtythousandfeet.com, or Dan Webb from Things in the Sky or David from What Just Flew By, please stop out. David has a clock at his blog counting down the minutes until the show starts. Now THAT’S pretty Geeky! Steve and Grant from Plane Crazy Down Under and Pieter Johnson from Across the Pond in England will be with us in spirit only I’m afraid.

We’ll be giving away some of our famous Jetwhine and Airplane Geeks buttons to everyone who stops by the booth too. See you Saturday Geeks. And thanks for reading and listening.

As you can tell from this photo (L), Dan Webb is petrified that some young lady will ask for his picture during the Women for Webbage campaign.

Rob Mark, Publisher