U.S. Navy Lt. Kayla Savage attended her first Northern Illinois Air Show as a teenager, and a member of the Zion-Benton Township High School JROTC. She liked what she saw so much, she knew aviation was going to be part of her future.
“You get a sense of adventure and a sense of purpose,” Savage said.
Growing up in Beach Park, she said she enrolled at the University of Notre Dame as a member of the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps, and for the last seven years has flown helicopters for the U.S. Navy. She plans to retire from the military, making it her lifetime career.
Savage is one of scores of young people who have attended Waukegan’s Northern Illinois Air Show over the years, and was inspired by what they saw and pursued a career in some form of aviation.
Waukegan National Airport General Manager Skip Goss, the show organizer, said he has received countless calls over the years — he is in his 20th year working with the show — from young people telling him about their lives and inspiration at the air show.
“They call me and tell me it was the air show that inspired their career,” Goss said. “They tell me they’re a commercial pilot, or are flying for the military, or are an engineer designing planes. We want to inspire our youth to reach for the stars and know that anything is possible.”
Waukegan’s Northern Illinois Air Show takes place from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Waukegan National Airport, giving spectators a chance to see a variety of aircraft taking off, flying — some do aerobatics — and landing.
An added feature of the air show allows attendees to get up close and personal with the pilots and their planes. Goss said the gates open at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. People are free to walk onto the runway, get close to the planes and talk to the pilots until the show starts at noon.
Show announcer Phil Dacy said he has handled the microphone for 35 years at the show. It does not take place every year. He attends air shows in a variety of places and likes the opportunity for fans and pilots to mix. His father started Dacy Airport in Harvard and he was raised there.
“This is what makes this show unique,” Dacy said. “People take pictures of the planes and the pilots. It’s a great chance to get up close and personal.”
Along with the planes, Goss said there will be exhibitors, military recruiters and other people affiliated with the aviation industry on hand. There is also a variety of food. There is no bleacher seating. A lot of spectators bring their own folding chairs.
A variety of planes will entertain spectators from four U.S. Navy EA-18 G Growlers — a form of the F18 fighter jets — to a Soviet-era MIG, to biplanes still airworthy after decades in the air.
Flying a Stearman Biplane in the show will be Susan Dacy, Phil Dacy’s sister. A retired American Airlines pilot, she has logged more than 40,000 miles in the air. This type of plane was originally used to train World War II pilots. She has owned and maintained it for more than 30 years.
Susan Dacy said the reason a large number of Stearman Biplanes are still around is that they became an ideal crop duster to help farmers. By removing the front seat, it was relatively easy to install the equipment needed to spray crops.
“I take people back to the early days of aviation,” she said. “I want to show people what aviation was like in the days of barnstorming 60 and 70 years ago. These big colorful planes would fly over fields, land and give people a chance to see them up close.”
One person who will not be at the show is Savage. She will be doing her job as a naval aviator, like the time when she flew a sailor from their aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Oman to a hospital in Dubai.
Since the helicopter was not equipped with enough fuel to get there, let alone return. Savage said arrangements were made to stop on two U.S. Navy vessels on the way there and back to refuel.
“We coordinated with two of our ships and air traffic control from Oman and the UAE, and landed at the joint base in Dubai,” she said. “We flew over mountains in Oman.”
Admission for adults is $25. Goss said children 12 and under are admitted free, as are members of the military.
