While Claremonters saw the activity and heard the hum and roar of engines in the sky during the 38th annual Air Show last Saturday and Sunday over Cable Airport just to the east in Upland, a group of young people were thinking of the future.

Mt. San Antonio College students Nick Brown, Josh Gordon, Jessy Devine, Siddhee Kasudia, Erik Coleson and Josualeth Rodriquez, Chaffey College students Cody Ash, J.J. Benis, Ray Rawls, John Reeves, Desire Stevens and Miguel Viramontes, and prospective pilots Chris Byers and Carlos Valladares, along with the Orange Coast College Flight Team, have all been recipients of $500 scholarships from the proceeds of the 2012 show.

Similar results are expected when the dust clears and accounting is completed from this year’s charity event, with the support of organizations including the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association), the Pomona Valley Pilots Association, the 99s (a women’s flight organization) and the Cable Foundation.

An additional attraction was the Friday mid-day rehearsal event held for an invitational group of special education students from Claremont schools and a wide variety of folks from such organizations as Pomona Valley Workshop, Ability First, OPARC, Casa Colina Rehabilitation Center and senior housing centers in the area.

Activities included the Freedom and Just in Time Skydivers along with a number of aerobatic pilots. Among these were 18-year-old Sam Mason in a PITTS airplane, Claremont’s “Tumbling Bear” Rob Harrison and Frank Donnelly with his “Dr. D’s Old Time Aerobatics” act, along with John Colver in a World War II AT-6 “war dog.” The Corona RC (Radio Controlled) Club hobbyists entertained as well.

On the ground activities ranged from pancake breakfasts from Maniac Mike’s Café, a favorite destination at the airport, to private plane and helicopter rides and numerous vendors of all things connected with aviation and varieties of food. The local chapter of the Commemorative Air Force presented a simulated wartime encampment and a parade of classic cars wound through the grounds each day.

Hardy crowds of an estimated 15,000 braved the cold weather during the 2 days to see the show and help advance education in aviation.

—Pat Yarborough