• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Teens Learn to Fly Small Aircraft: Bradenton Prep Plans to Offer the Class Each Year

Posted on: Saturday, 20 May 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Erica Rodriguez, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

May 20--MANATEE -- Fifteen-year-old Amber Gibbs can't legally drive a car yet -- but she can fly.

Amber and her classmates at Bradenton Preparatory Academy flew a couple of Cessna 172 airplanes Friday afternoon from Manatee County to Venice and back.

"I think it's really amazing," Amber said, as she and a few fellow students prepared two small planes for flight. "It's really cool."

With the final day of school just a few days away, a handful of Bradenton Preparatory students flew for the last time this school year.

They have flown about once per week as part of an "Introduction to aviation" class offered by the school this spring. And Harrison Sanborn, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, said he has really enjoyed it.

"I like it, because we get to fly different types of aircrafts," Harrison said, adding that he had experience flying prior to enrolling in the course.

Susan Hedgcock, executive director of Bradenton Preparatory Academy, said this is the first year aviation has been offered at the school, but that there are plans to continue and expand the curriculum.

"I think it's great for their self-esteem," Hedgcock said. "It teaches them to master something that is out of the box."

Bill Welde, chief flight instructor for Cirrus Aviation, taught the students for the past few months, both in the classroom and in a plane.

Welde said he covered several topics throughout the course, including aerodynamic principles, control forces required for maneuvering flight, relationships between lift and power, aircraft power plants, aircraft systems, flight instrumentation, navigation systems and other related avionics.

"They're spending 15 hours in the air, of which they log five hours as pilot time," Welde said, adding that there is no age requirement for students to fly planes with an instructor by their side.

Quinton Carter, a 16-year-old 10th-grader, said he signed up for the class because he "thought it would be really fun to try it."

"It was kind of scary at first," Quinton said. "But after we flew a couple of times, we got used to it."

Erica Rodriguez, Herald reporter, can be reached at erodriguez@HeraldToday.com [mailto:erodriguez@HeraldToday.com] or at 745-7095.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

More News in this Category