Aviation View | Volume 2, Issue 1

40 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 especially the rural community, know what their airport is doing. We give a couple tours a month for elementary schools, high schools, recently I did one with Assisted Living residents. We also do them for government and West Tennessee leadership classes that come in to see what different counties around Tennessee are doing and what we offer.” Promoting aviation as a career is so important these days, given the shortage of skilled people in the industry. As Seaton attests, “There are so many great opportunities, not just in the military but in all aspects of aviation. We’re short of pilots, we’re short of maintainers, and most all careers that evolve around the aviation world. Flying is not as glamorous as it used to be back in the ‘70s, but if we can simply enlighten one young lady or gentleman about opportunities in the aviation industry we’re doing our job.” Call it a stroke of good fortune, but the runway Director Beth Pippin. “Tennessee Department of Tourist Development states that visitors spent $31.81M in Hardin County in 2020 – ranking us 39 of 95 counties in visitor spending. Although it is unlikely that aero-tourism ranks high on our scale, it does have the potential to play a supporting role especially with our outdoor tourism draws of the lake, river, fishing, then with our heritage tourism of Shiloh National Military Park. Our convention and visitors bureau partners with the local airport on their annual Open House Fly-In to promote the amenities of the airport and to promote local attractions and events. We also pitch in to offer hospitality bags for pilots, industry and real estate guests that may fly in for business.” The Open House Fly-In is a very popular event. Seaton notes, “We have aerial demonstrations… I call it community outreach to let people,