Fundraiser Includes Chance To Win Left-Seat Ride On A320 Sim

Angel Flight North East, a network of over 1100 pilots, will hold its second annual Long Island, NY benefit, titled "A Wing and A Heart," at the American Airpower Museum at the Farmingdale Airport, NY beginning at 5:30 pm on May 24, 2007. 

This charitable evening is for the benefit of Angel Flight NE; an organization dedicated to providing no cost transportation to children and adults in need of life saving medical treatment far from the place they call home.  The group says its "A Wing and A Heart" event is aptly named to raise awareness and funding to keep "Angel Flights" soaring for those in critical need. A special presentation by the founder of AFNE, heartfelt stories from Angel Flight families, VIP tours of the museum a silent auction and a variety of raffle prizes, are on the evening's exciting agenda.

Among many of the event's features will be several performers of the Annual Jones Beach Air show, including a WWII fighter aircraft flyby, and among many items on the auction block that evening is to take the Captains seat in an Airbus A320 full motion flight simulator. The lucky winner of this opportunity of a lifetime will experience starting, taxiing, takeoffs and landings in this popular and modern airliner with a glass cockpit and fly by wire side stick controls.

Angel Flight NE, a non-profit organization that has answered over 32,000 flight requests and has flown over 5.7 million miles, began its successful operations in May 1996. Free air transportation is provided to children and adults who need medical care but do not have access to commercial airlines, cannot afford to fly a commercial carrier, or cannot use any other mode of transportation due to their particular medical condition.

Pilots volunteer their aviation skills and time, fueling their own private airplanes to transport patients and families of patients for diagnosis and treatments that would not otherwise be available to them. Flights are provided as often as necessary. Emergency flights are reserved for those who need to visit critically ill or injured family members, for patients needing organ transplants, or for organ and blood donations. "We even make compassion flights and provide air care wherever there is a compelling human need," says Larry Camerlin, founder of AFNE.

All of the flights are paid for by the pilots themselves, and transportation to and from airports for patients and families is provided by ground volunteers called "Earth Angels." Mission coordination and community outreach/public education and pilot recruitment are paid for through generous contributions from corporate sponsors, organizations, charitable gifts, community service groups, churches and individuals.

"Our Long Island Angels are made up of over 70 Angel Flight Pilots and a growing corps of Earth Angels," says Rudy Holesek, Volunteer Pilot and Committee Chair for A Wing and A Heart. Holesek continues, "We couldn't ask for a more suitable location and time for the benefit -- the American Airpower Museum that replicates the historic 1940s-era situated at Republic Airport. Everyone will go home with something-especially a new sense of compassion and respect for our patients, their families and the volunteers of Angel Flight."

FMI: www.angelflightne.org, or call Amy Camerlin at 978-505-9030