Social Media at a Time of Social Distancing

January 2021 – If you have never taken the time to wander in the vintage area at AirVenture I encourage you to do it some time. You will find some amazing gems from the past. I have not met a pilot there who wasn't happily willing to tell you about their pride and joy.

Iconic Noorduyn Norseman.

I came across this stunning Norseman in the Vintage area, sorry I cannot remember what year it was built. Suffice it to say that the pilot was willing to let me take a peek and it was immaculate, inside and out. Dare I say this aircraft was in better shape than when it was new.

Hopefully I have your captured your attention with that beautiful Norseman, however this article is not about vintage airplanes. It is about EAA Canadian Council and our role in Canada, and most importantly how you can help us.

Our mission is to grow aviation by providing EAA support and assisting EAA HQ with the subtleties and nuances of Canadian regulations and culture, and to promote and support the chapter network in Canada. There are only six members of the Canadian Council and we are spread across the country from B.C to Nova Scotia so it is impossible for us to attend most events. That's where you, our readers and followers, come in. We need you to be our eyes and ears and help us spread aviation stories across Canada.

Sharing information as widely as possible is a key to building a strong EAA aviation community and we have four ways to do that now. Firstly, our newsletter called Bits & Pieces, most ably edited by Ian Brown. We have Facebook and have recently launched Twitter and Instagram pages.

To supplement sharing of ideas and interesting aviation bits across Canada in addition to our newsletter, please find us on Facebook at EAA - Canada, on Twitter @EAACanada and on Instagram @EAA_Canada.

How can you help us? Simply by following our accounts and telling everyone you know about them, encourage them to follow, and encourage any young folks who have an interest in aviation to follow us on Instagram.

We intend to highlight youth in aviation on our Instagram account as much as we possibly can, so we really need any photos and short stories about anything youth and aviation related that you can send us.

But that isn't all you can do. Let us know about any interesting Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, or Instagram feeds you think we should follow so we can share that information as well.

If you are a chapter leader we encourage you to let us know what your chapter social media accounts are so we can follow your chapter on social media and share stories across Canada. Consider sharing your chapter newsletter with us so we can share all your good works with others across Canada. It will take us time to build our social media presence but with your help we can build it so we can share the love of aviation across Canada. "If we build it they will come."

We can share EAA Canadian chapter events by following their social media. If you are attending an event that isn't hosted by a chapter, please send us pictures and a short story so we can share it, and consider submitting a more in depth article for our newsletter. It can be anything related to aviation such as a first solo, passing a checkride, open house at the airport, kids or family event. If you know someone building an aircraft we'd love to share their story if they are willing to let us, please encourage them to send us the story of their project. We appreciate all the help you can give us and we only ask that you confirm with whomever is in your pictures that it is OK for us to share on social media.

Since this is an aviation newsletter I will end with another picture. A few years back I had some spare time during the week before the show, so I snuck away and went to the museum where EAA was giving rides in several vintage aircraft. This is the museum's Travel Air.

1929 Travel Air.