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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pilots give youngsters a taste of the air up there


Jack Hohner gives the propeller a turn on a Piper Cub on Saturday at Felts Field as pilot Charles Britt waits to take his passenger, Nate Pickette, 9, on a flight. 
 (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Virginia De Leon Staff writer

The boy was hooked.

After soaring through the sky in a 1940s single-engine, two-seater plane, Nate Pickette’s smile was as wide as the Piper Cub’s wingspan.

“It was great – I love being up in the air,” said the 9-year-old, climbing out of the yellow classic aircraft at Spokane Valley’s Felts Field. “Flying feels really good.”

Like most of the kids who showed up Saturday for Young Eagles Day, Pickette has traveled via commercial jet but had never before experienced the sensation of flight from the back seat of a tiny plane.

After cruising the Spokane skies for nearly half an hour with Charles Britts, a veteran aviator of 56 years, Pickette couldn’t wait to do it again. “I think we’ve got a future pilot,” said the boy’s father, Steve Pickette, of Spokane.

And that was precisely the goal of Young Eagles Day, a free event designed to get boys and girls ages 8 to 17 interested in aviation. Sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association, the program was launched in 1993 and has enabled more than 1 million children to fly with pilots nationwide.

“It’s a thrill of a lifetime,” said Judy Malcolm, of Otis Orchards, who accompanied her grandson, 12-year-old Stephen Kinzer, to Saturday morning’s event. “It’s so nice of the pilots to give their time, money and gas for the kids.”

Six pilots – all members of Chapter 79, the local EAA affiliate – flew 70 kids in their own private planes. Before taking the children on a bird’s-eye tour of Spokane, these volunteers taught them about safety procedures, the individual aircrafts and the basics of getting these machines off the ground and soaring through the air. They also absorbed all the costs of flight, including the $5-per-gallon fuel. (A one-hour flight burns at least eight gallons, according to several pilots.)

“We do it for the kids,” said Jack Hohner, the Chapter 79 president. “They can learn a lot from aviation. It involves skill and requires discipline. It’s a healthy interest for kids, and this is a cause that we all rally behind.”

EAE’s Chapter 79 has 125 members from throughout Spokane and the North Idaho area. Over the years, the organization has fostered young people’s passion for flying not only by taking them along on airplane rides, but also through scholarship programs that enable youths to earn their pilot’s or mechanic’s license and eventually pursue careers in aviation.

“You can sometimes make changes in these kids’ lives,” said Bob Harding, a former Young Eagles coordinator who over the years has flown 526 kids in his Piper Cherokee. “Flying teaches them about clean living and gives them a sense of responsibility.”

Marian Heale, one of the volunteer pilots at Saturday’s event, often reaches out to the girls who show up for Young Eagles Day. “I would like to see more females in aviation,” said Heale, who first took flying lessons in 1976 after working as a flight attendant.

Heale – a member of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots whose first president was Amelia Earhart – flies an aircraft known as a Citabria, a sleek, blue-and-white two-seater with a new 150-horsepower engine that helps it “leap off the ground.” Before strapping the young rider into the back seat, she asks about their flying experience, teaches them the fundamentals of aviation and assures the anxious ones that the plane “won’t fall out of the sky.”

“Flying gives you a sense of freedom,” she said, explaining her love of flight. “It’s beautiful up there.”