Event To Be Held September 27-28 At SC's Greenville Downtown Airport

This month, the third annual Southeast Aviation Expo (SEAE) will be held on Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28 at the Greenville Downtown Airport (KGMU) in South Carolina, located just off I-85 between Atlanta and Charlotte.

The event will showcase the latest aviation products, have a static aircraft display and educational sessions. The focus of the educational sessions on Friday will be more on business use of aviation and on Saturday will be more towards the personal use of aviation.

SEAE opens at 1 pm Friday, September 27 with a Business Aviation Industry Update at 1:30. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen is the keynote speaker. The business aviation community is a large, diverse and important industry, which plays a key role in job creation and economic growth. Companies of all sizes, all across the U.S. rely on an airplane to get their people out into the 'field,' so they can conduct business. Business aviation reaches about 5,000 public-use facilities where there often is little or no airline service.  According to NBAA’s website, only about three percent of the approximately 15,000 business aircraft registered in the U.S. are flown by Fortune 500 companies, while the remaining 97 percent are operated by a broad cross section of organizations, including governments, universities, charitable organizations and businesses – large, medium and small.  Common uses of business aircraft are for medical and emergency transport, mapping and surveying, aerial photography, agricultural applications, security and law enforcement, news gathering, pipeline and utility monitoring, weather monitoring and humanitarian missions.

Other Friday events include:

• 3 – 4:30 pm: Light Business Aviation Safety Seminar – Cliff Jenkins, SC Safety Council
• 4:45 – 5:15 pm: Business Aviation Safety and Compliance – Baldwin Aviation / Tax Planning For Business Aircraft Owners – Aviation Tax Consultants, LLC            
• 5:30 – 6 pm: Sparkplug Maintenance and Troubleshooting – Champion Aerospace

The event continues Saturday, September 28 – opening at 9 am. Along with a number of sessions and seminars, Saturday will be highlighted by a talk at 12:45 by retired Blue Angels Pilot - Lt. Commander Scott "Yogi" Beare titled "Lessons Learned from a Blue Angels Pilot."  The fastest he got was 1.78 Mach, which is 1.78 times the speed of sound, which equals about 1300 miles per hour.

Beare will talk about his fast flying experiences since not many pilots ever get to go that fast or fly those type planes.  Beare is a graduate of the famed Naval Fighter Weapons School “TOPGUN”, as well as a combat decorated veteran of Desert Storm where he was awarded two air medals and a navy commendation medal for valor in aerial combat. Beare's formal education includes a M.B.A. and a B.A. from George Washington University. He has authored two books: “Yogi Beare! Values of a Blue Angel, an inspiring story of how personal values build character to overcome hardship and drive success”; and, “The Power of Teamwork, inspired by the ultimate team, highlights key principles of teamwork embraced by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels.”

At 1:45 Saturday, Thomas Allen Burke will be honored with a Wright Brothers’ Master Pilot Award.

(Scott Beare image provided by SEAE)

FMI: www.scaaonline.com/southeast-aviation-expo/