Hard to believe it was 20 years ago, but the first Citation Airlift that I crewed on took place in 2006. I joined Munther Qubain in his 2000 Citation CJ1 to fly athletes from the North Carolina delegation from Raleigh (KRDU) to Des Moines, Iowa (KDSM), for the Games that year.
In the intervening years, I’ve crewed on two more flights, and volunteered on the ground for Arrival Day when the flights come in, during the time I worked for Cessna, in 2010. For 2026, I would report on the SOA for AvBrief.com. I wanted to see Departure Day, which would take place on June 27, in St. Paul, Minnesota (KSTP). And I was honored to spend the entire day with the Textron Aviation team, from the first departure, at 7:30 a.m., until nearly the end, when the second-to-last Dove—a demo Citation Latitude called in to replace a King Air that was taken out of service—taxied out around 4:30 p.m.
I’ve captured the spirit of the day, along with interviews with key TextAv folks, in this video posted on AvBrief. But the foundational feeling was joy: the joy of being human, and doing something substantial for our fellow humans.
The Airlift Compels Us to Be Human
That’s what Russ Meyer, Jr., former president and CEO of Cessna, intended when he launched the Airlift back in 1987. In doing so, the team started an event that anyone who has witnessed can never forget.