Those who don’t live near Santa Monica might be shocked to learn that not all is doom and gloom at the Southern California city’s embattled airport, which is subject to concerted efforts by the city council and its airport commission to close the field in favor of unspecified development plans. Some anti-airporters want to see the property turned into a park, while others suspect that developers are champing at the bit to turn the acreage into far more profitable uses such as office buildings and housing. 

Meanwhile, the airport goes on, and to the city’s credit, KSMO is well run, clean, safe, crime-free and regularly a fun place to bring the kids.

Each month Josh Ochs, a talented social media wizard and founder of MediaLeaders.com and SafeSmartSocial.com, uses his skills to invite parents from all over the Los Angeles metropolitan area to bring their kids to the airport and visit with pilots and airplanes. Ochs invites local pilots to park an airplane in front of the airport’s excellent public observation deck. At the appointed hours, the parents and kids show up and are escorted by a guide to the airplane, where they meet the pilot, climb into the cockpit and spend a few minutes soaring in imaginary skies.

I participated in a Sunday event in October and borrowed a Pipistrel Alpha LSA and a Cessna 172 from the Justice Aviation rental fleet and parked them along with a Piper Warrior from Proteus Air Services and some other local airplanes at the observation deck. By 11 a.m., the line of kids extended well off the deck into the parking lot. For three intense hours, I welcomed the kids (most were under 10 years old) and their parents, helped lift the kids in the left and right seats of the Alpha and showed them how to move the controls while parents and a professional photographer took photos. (The photos were made available for parents to download for free.)

That weekend’s event took place on Saturday and Sunday, and 275 families participated. In six months, Ochs brought 942 families with more than 1,630 kids to Santa Monica Airport. While many (275) of the families were Santa Monica residents, others were from nearby Los Angeles, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Culver City and Venice. The remainder drove from farther away. More than half of the families were paying their first visit to the airport, while 262 indicated that they regularly bring their kids to the observation deck to watch airplanes take off and land.

The kids were universally enthusiastic about getting to sit in a real airplane and grabbing the controls, whether girls or boys or very young or blasé 10-year-olds. More than a few didn’t want to leave the airplane; one young boy kept furiously crying, “airplane! airplane!” as his parent extricated him from the front seat and pried his hands off the controls. And a lot of parents wanted to try on the pilots’ seats as well, with some even asking about learning to fly.

Ochs and all the volunteers who help make this monthly event happen deserve great credit for helping put a friendly face on Santa Monica Airport and for introducing young kids and their parents to general aviation. Let's hope this is a spark that will not only lead to further explorations of flight, but also a more friendly reaction to the airports in their locales.