Halim AFB to hold open day
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/15/2011 6:31 PM
The Halim Perdanakusumah
Air Force Base will be holding an open day called Gebyar Dirgantara (Aviation Extravaganza) on Satuday with plenty of
aviation-related activities.
The organizing
committee chairman, Col. Tri Bowo Budi, said Thursday the event would be
hosting some 1,500 orphans and was intended to introduce aviation to children.
“This event is being
held to commemorate International Civil Aviation Day, Islamic Orphans Day, and
to support the ‘zero accidents in aviation’ cause,” Tri told reporters at the
base’s officers’ mess.
International
Civil Aviation Day was first
celebrated by the International Civil Aviation Organization in Dec. 1994 to
mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the International Civil Aviation
Convention. Islamic Orphans Day is observed every Muharram 10, the tenth day of
the first month in the Islamic calendar, which falls on Dec. 6 this year.
Mighty Hercules: A kindergarten teacher allows her students a close-up view of the hardware at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in East Jakarta earlier this year. The aircraft in the background is a Lockheed L-100 Hercules VIP transport aircraft, which is operated by the Air Force’s 17th VIP squadron. (Antara/Saptono)
Tri, who is also
commander of the Air Force’s 1st Wing Transport, said the activities
would include parachute demonstrations, the flight of paper aircraft by 2,000
children in an attempt to create a record for the Indonesian Museum
of Records (MURI) and aerobatic demonstrations using Indonesian Air Force
EC-120B Colibri light and training helicopters.
The highlight of
the day will be the children taking part in joy flights onboard airplanes used
by the 1st Wing, which include a Boeing 737 VIP transport, a C-130B
Hercules heavy transport, a Fokker F-27 and a CN-235 medium transport carrier.
Other activities scheduled
for later in the day will include an aikido demonstration, band and angklung performances, a religious
sermon and a book launch by former Indonesian Air Force chief of staff Marshal
(ret.) Chappy Hakim.
