RPCV Hank Eng takes children up for their first flight as a participating pilot in the EAA’s Young Eagles program
Volunteers head over heels over airventure
Relatives will clock 80 hours altogether at this year’s event
By Steve Wideman
Post-Crescent staff writer
OSHKOSH — Long before crowds flood into the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture convention each day, Hank Eng leaves his Appleton home with his father-in-law, Leonard Gardner, bound for Oshkosh.
Eng, a licensed pilot, flight instructor and expert in jet engines, has a lifelong love for aviation.
Gardner, 82, of Baltimore, a World War II veteran with a sense of adventure that has taken him to 35 countries and fostered four decades of involvement in competitive sailing on the East Coast, has a general love for life.
The two share a common interest that brings them to AirVenture: helping people.
Eng and Gardner will spend more than 80 hours combined volunteering at AirVenture, which wraps up today at Wittman Regional Airport.
Eng, who worked with the U.S. Peace Corps after college and serves on the Appleton Common Council, said he is a firm believer in volunteerism.
“We live in a diverse culture. If we don’t learn about and experience others and hear their experiences, we are all lesser for it,” Eng said.
He started volunteering at AirVenture in 2002, the same year he was transferred to Appleton in his job as a program manager for General Electric working on GE aircraft engines.
Eng, who earned his pilot’s license more than 30 years ago as a Civil Air Patrol cadet, introduces speakers at the EAA’s many forums during AirVenture. He has taken children up for their first flight as a participating pilot in the EAA’s Young Eagles program.
Eng coaxed his father-in-law, a D-Day veteran who earned Bronze and Silver stars during World War II, into visiting EAA two years ago.
Gardner estimates he works up to six hours a day at AirVenture, primarily in the membership sales building.
“I really don’t count the hours. I find volunteering fun. You meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world who do so many different things,” Gardner said. “It was so exciting last year I decided to come back, I can visit Hank and my daughter, Lindsay, and do something useful at the same time.”
Steve Wideman can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 302, or by e-mail at swideman@postcrescent.com
