Young Eagle takes flight
Karen Peterson photo
Levi Schmidt, 13, flies a Cessna airplane with the help of pilot Carmine Mowbray.
Karen Peterson photo
Makenna Ducharme was nervous about taking off for her first flight but comes back excited about flying.
Karen Peterson photo
To encourage interest in aviation, Young Eagles are given the opportunity to fly for free and see Polson from the sky.
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POLSON – During a Young Eagles flight, Levi Schmidt, 13, took the control yoke of the Cessna plane going 140 miles an hour and calmly flew over the north end of the valley with instruction from long time pilot Carmine Mowbray.
“It looks wonderful,” Levi said looking out over the lake.
Mowbray reminded him to look for air traffic as he curved the airplane around Finley Point.
“Over there is Wild Horse Island,” Mowbray said.
Levi’s sister, Amanda, sat in the back seat noticing the bird’s eye view of trees, backyards and a layer of white rain clouds above the airplane.
“Keep it at 120 miles an hour,” Mowbray said to Levi before taking over the controls to come in for a landing back at the airport. The wheels touched down at 110 miles an hour.
Levi has taken several airplane rides over the years and he hopes to continue taking flights through the Young Eagle program sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 1122. Mowbray started flying when gas was 58 cents a gallon and has taken kids on more than 100 Young Eagle flights.
“We’ve had over 1.5 million flights across the nation,” said Joe Kuberka, EAA president. “We’ve got four pilots today, each taking up to four kids at a time for twenty minute flights.”
Pilots volunteer their time and gas to get kids interested in flying.
“We’ve locked off airports for security,” Kuberka said. “We do this program to bring kids into the airport to get them interested in flying. They can learn a lot about everything from flying including math, geography and science. It’s important to get them interested.”
Past EAA President Mauri Morin said that there is a shortage of young people interested in aviation.
“If we don’t have more people interested in flying then we have a shortage of commercial pilots,” he said. “We have a shortage right now. The airlines are growing faster than we are producing young pilots. We do this program to help advance aviation, and we always like repeat offenders: those kids coming out to fly again and again.”
Makenna Ducharme, 10, was nervous before her first flight.
“I’m going to face my fears,” she said excitedly.
After the flight she said, “That was awesome. I could see small everything: small cars, small boats and small trees.”
Jessi James, 8, took the same flight and said, “I had butterflies in my stomach the whole time, good ones. I was so excited I couldn’t stop talking.”
The Young Eagles program hosts flights across the valley during the summer. For more information visit www.eaa.org.
