Have you always wanted to fly a plane? Now, thanks to a group called the Young Eagles, you can put on a headset and take the controls of a real plane–and you’ll get a certificate to prove it. Plus it’s you and a pilot and maybe one or two other kids–no parents allowed.
The Young Eagles is a national organization of about 36,000 pilots who fly kids ages 7 to 17 in small planes. It was started in 1992 by the Experimental Aircraft Association, mainly pilots who build and fly their own planes.
“Kids can take a free, 20-minute flight in a Cessna or Piper Cub and talk to the pilot and listen to him communicate with the control tower,” explains Carol Thompson, the field representative for the Chicago-area Young Eagles program. “Once in the air, the pilots explain the instrument panel and usually ask the kid in the next seat if he or she wants to take over the controls.”
Thompson organizes Young Eagles rallies at several local small airports. “From one to three kids and the pilot go up, but parents are not allowed to fly,” Thompson says. Parents do, however, have to sign a permission form.
As part of the program, kids attend “mini ground schools.” Former Young Eagle Carl Robinson, 19, of Chicago, who attended the mini ground school when he was 15, is an instructor for the kid-flier classes.
An aviation student at Lewis University in Romeoville, Robinson plans to become a commercial pilot. “I had always wanted to fly in a plane from the time I was 2,” he says. “After the Eagles flight, I took lessons in a Cessna, and got my student pilot license when I was 16.”
In the mini ground school, Robinson teaches “what the plane is made of, how to operate the aircraft and how commercial pilots fly aircraft.”
“Kids always ask if it is hard to learn how to fly,” he says. “I tell them it’s easy now because of advanced cockpits.”
Paris K., 13, of Chicago was one of Robinson’s Young Eagles students. “It was scary and . . . fun when I was flying the plane,” he says. Robinson “told me how great I was doing when I started turning [and said], ‘If you’re scared and don’t want to do it, I’ll help you out.’
“Flying for the first time, especially in a small aircraft, is a unique learning experience. “It is something I will never forget,” says Tieaunnia A., 16, of Chicago. “It amazed me that you feel every motion, every hump and bump in the air beneath you, in a small plane.”
Tieaunnia thinks more kids should get with the Young Eagles program. “I would tell others to take advantage of this, to get out of your comfort zone,” she says. “I’d never been in a plane that small.”
After completing the flight, each kid gets a certificate with his or her name, the date of the flight and the kind of plane flown.
“What’s neat is after they fly, kids can go to the Young Eagles Web site and type in their name and find it in the world’s largest logbook, with names of kids from all over the world,” Thompson says.
The Young Eagles program holds rallies at several Chicago-area airports. Are you ready to get off the ground? Call 877-806-8902 or go to www.youngeagles.org to find out more.
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A bird’s-eye view
Last year, I flew with the Young Eagles and helped them meet a goal. The group’s aim was to fly 1 million kids by the 100th anniversary in December 2003 of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
I met pilot Robert “Butch” Bejna at the Schaumburg Regional Airport. We walked down to his Cessna 180. Once inside, Bejna hooked up my headset and fastened my seatbelt. On the control panel of the Cessna were several gauges, buttons and switches.
We closed the doors and rolled down to the runway. The airplane gathered speed as it went along. Gradually, the plane lifted into the air–we were defying gravity!
Bejna suggested I use the control wheel on my side of the Cessna. Somehow I managed to keep calm. No plane had ever obeyed my orders before; this plane turned at the slightest touch of the control wheel.
We were flying at an altitude of 1,800 feet above sea level. Since the airport is 800 feet above sea level, we actually were 1,000 feet above ground. Cars looked as small as ants, the casino boat looked like a toy and the river looked like a murky green ribbon.
The ride took about 20 minutes, but it felt like one measly minute. Bejna took over for the landing. Compared to a commercial airplane, it felt much the same, except my ears did not pop.
–Scoop Trooper Krish J., 10, Hinsdale
