Kids Learn to Stretch Their Wings
By Lakiesha McGhee, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Jun. 5–With ample curiosity and a bit of hesitation, Tanya Berry boarded a 1946 single-engine two-seater at the Auburn Airport.
The 11-year-old Rocklin girl admitted she was nervous about her first flight lesson.
“What do you know about airplanes?” asked volunteer flight instructor Mo Singer. Tanya shrugged her shoulders.
“Do you have video games?” he asked. Tanya nodded. The free lesson continued as Singer pointed out the throttle and other aircraft parts. He told Tanya to visualize keeping the airplane wings in line with the horizon.
Singer then fastened Tanya’s seat belt and gave her headphones before the red-and-white Aeronca Champion carried them into the clear blue.
For 20 minutes, she was treated to a bird’s-eye view and offered insight into the aviation world, thanks to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program.
Since 1992, the association, an international community of aviation enthusiasts, has provided free flights to more than 1.38 million children, ages 8 to 17. EAA members range in age and backgrounds and include actor Harrison Ford, who serves as chairman of the Young Eagles program.
In Auburn, pilots from Chapter 526 donated their time, airplanes and fuel costs to fly about 55 students on a recent Sunday.
Members also will join with the Sacramento chapter on Friday to offer free flights to youths at the kickoff of the Golden West Regional Fly-in and Airshow at the Yuba County Airport.
The goal is to help young people overcome the obstacles to learning to fly a plane, said Tom Brady, the Auburn chapter’s Young Eagles director. Aviation is often overlooked in traditional classrooms, and the expense of flight lessons places an aviation career out of reach for many.
“We want to get youngsters excited about aviation and, hopefully, they will want to fly,” Brady said as he assisted students and their parents inside the Auburn Airport hangar last month.
The free flights are an introduction to the possibilities in aviation. After the flights, the students become Young Eagles, who receive information about EAA resources, such as scholarships, internships and aviation camp. Auburn chapter officials said they provide flights for about 175 children a year.
Aspiring Young Eagles at the Auburn Airport chatted excitedly about which plane they wanted to fly. A shiny red 1940s Boeing Stearman was a favorite choice.
“It was a lot fun,” said Jesse DelBono, a sophomore at Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks. “I saw a lot of things from the sky that I didn’t know were there.”
While some students said they want to pursue aviation careers, others said they took the flight for the thrill and the view. No matter the motivation, all Young Eagles will have their names entered into a logbook at the association’s headquarters in Oshkosh, Wis.
“This experience will help open their minds to science and engineering,” said Suzette DelBono, an education specialist for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District who attended the Auburn event with her family. DelBono, a former science teacher, recognizes how aviation can spark interest in math and science, but she said schools have limited resources and little time to deviate from state curriculum requirements. If teachers are creative, they can squeeze aviation into lessons about climate and weather, she said.
The national Department of Defense says though less than 1 percent of elementary students will seek advanced education in the sciences, jobs involving science and engineering continue to grow more rapidly than other fields.
The national STARBASE program, funded by the Department of Defense, seeks to rectify the discrepancy by using kids’ fascination with flight to make math and science exciting.
The lessons involve flight simulation activities, hands-on instruction about aircraft control, the forces of flight, properties of air, space exploration and Newton’s laws of motion.
“We help students understand why that airplane is in the air before they get behind the controls of a flight simulator and the gee-whiz factor kicks in,” said Sgt. John Lamb, director of California STARBASE.
The California STARBASE National Guard program serves about 4,000 fifth-graders in 11 school districts throughout the area, including the Sacramento City Unified School District, Loomis Union Elementary School District, Newcastle Elementary School District and local private schools.
Singer said he found his love of flying at an early age — with the help of a cousin. He was 7 years old when he sneaked out of the house, jumped on his bicycle and pedaled to a small New York airport where his cousin worked on fighter planes. Singer was promised a free flight — if he didn’t tell his parents.
“If it wasn’t for that cousin, I probably wouldn’t be here,” said Singer, a retired TWA pilot and former member of the Air Force.
—–
To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
NASDAQ-NMS:BORL,