Aviation View | Volume 2, Issue 3

93 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3 FULLERTON MUNI C I PAL A I RPORT and a lot of really creative features.” Promoting awareness of aviation as a career is another point of passion for O’Reilly. The City of Fullerton has a strong education program – it’s called “The Education City” because of the numerous schools and colleges located there, and Troy High School is known throughout the country for its STEM program. “I wanted to tap into that for my own selfish reasons,” O’Reilly admits. “As a kid, I would have loved to come to the airport for a field trip. So, we met with the school district and put together a field trip program based on the 3rd, 4th, 5th grade science curriculum. Things like weather, direction, latitude & longitude, mapping… we had a classroom portion, so we could actually integrate it into the curriculum with the school science standards. As well as letting kids sit in the airplanes, touch and feel and hear, meet with the pilots. It’s an awesome experience for them. COVID curtailed things a bit but we’re planning to get the program running again soon.” In 2014, Hangar 21 Helicopter came to the Fullerton Municipal field doing photography, tours, and charters. They also took one of the hangars and polished the floor, painted the walls, insulated, and made it a “really cool” atmosphere. Then they started getting requests to do parties and weddings. O’Reilly recalls, “The owner, Rob Simms, came to me and said he could be tapping into this new market and bringing so many people to the airport. So we worked with the city to get the airport rezoned, and while he’s still very much a helicopter operator, at night they host corporate events and weddings and fundraisers. They have literally brought thousands of people to the airport who would never have come otherwise.” Fullerton Municipal Airport also has two flight