Hoover scholarship recipients experience AirVenture

The four recipients of the 2015 Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarships, presented in partnership between the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation and the Citation Jet Pilots Owner Pilot Association, recently spent an activity-filled week immersed in the wonders of general aviation at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture 2015, held July 20-28 in Oshkosh, Wis.

Scholarship recipient Robert Morgan termed his experience “a nonstop adventure of back-to-back once in a lifetime opportunities. I had no idea what all to expect during this trip, but the entire [visit] was beyond anything I could have expected.”

Morgan — along with his fellow Scholars Dakota Foster, Achyut Nair, and Anna Robinson — opened the show with a trip to the seaplane base, then got an aerial tour of the AirVenture grounds from the vantage point of a Bell 47 helicopter, followed by flights with the AeroShell Aerobatic Team onboard their World War II-vintage North American T-6 Texans.

Also throughout their stay at Wittman Field, the group met with aviation design pioneer Burt Rutan, toured the “World’s Busiest Control Tower” at Wittman Field and visited the EAA Museum.

CJP Director Tracy Forrest provided accommodations for the group in CJP’s Hospitality trailers at Camp Scholler, the EAA’s large on-site RV campground at Wittman Field for AirVenture attendees.

Building on its first Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarship awarded in 2013, CJP expanded its partnership with the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation last year to award the four, $25,000 scholarships to students attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) on campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla.

The scholars also attended the Bob Hoover Dinner during AirVenture, where they had the opportunity to catch up with the famed aviator since their first meeting last October during the scholarship awards presentation in Daytona Beach.