Making spirits soar
The engine rumbles, ready for takeoff. Hundreds of green, red and orange buttons light up the control panel like a Christmas tree. Screens glow with blue and brown diagrams designed to help with altitude.
The plane gently takes off and soon glides around Fairchild Air Force Base.
“Is there any way I can pick up speed and go faster?” asks an eager Jason Stolz, the 13-year-old pilot.
A 13-year-old flying an $18 million military machine half a mile up in the sky?
It was all part of the Pilot for the Day program that allowed Stolz and Amberlynn Weber, 10, to pilot the KC-135 simulator at Fairchild. The program was designed to distract the two children with disabilities from the hospital stays and paralysis that have marked their childhoods. Wednesday was the trial run of the program, which partners the Washington Air National Guard and Shriners Hospital for Children.
Stolz was born with cerebral palsy and uses forearm crutches or a wheelchair to get around. Doctors diagnosed Weber with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer, when she was 6 months old, and now she needs her forearm crutches to walk.
But on Wednesday the two excited children forgot their crutches and concentrated instead on not crashing. The two received specially fitted flight suits and name tags to keep, attended survival school, experienced life support demonstrations, received mission plans and toured a KC-135 plane. At the end of the day, the 141st Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild inducted the pair as honorary pilots.
“It was fun and exciting,” Weber said. “I’ve been looking forward to it a long time. I actually got to fly a plane … kind of.”
The blond girl in her camouflage green flight suit said the flight simulator was her favorite part of the day, though she feared she would crash.
Stolz also enjoyed the flight simulator the most, and he said he was impressed with the graphics of the virtual reality.
“It looks like you’re actually going down,” he said.
His slightly jealous dad, Wade Stolz, hopped into the pilot’s seat later and the pair flew together. They even bet on who would crash first: the son washing his father’s van if he crashed or the father cleaning his son’s room if he lost. In the end, neither crashed.
The expensive virtual reality machine – the Mylar screen simulating the pilot’s view costs $100,000 – usually helps train pilots and mechanics in two- to four-hour sessions.
“We throw all the people in here for the hard emergencies,” said Lt. Col. Marc Jones, a pilot instructor who helped train the children.
Maj. Matt Yakely, also a pilot, first heard about the program when he was stationed at a base in Oklahoma. When he arrived at Fairchild, he brought the idea with him. He pitched the program to his superiors last year before approaching Shriners this past spring.
“It’s a diversion from what (the children) have to do every day,” Yakely said. “It’s immeasurable. You can’t put a price on it.”
Tomie Zuchetto, the recreational therapy manager at Shriners who coordinated the effort, said she had a difficult time choosing from the hundreds of children she sees at her job and as a basketball and track-and-field coach. In the end, she chose two children whose stories and families were familiar and who she knew would enjoy the experience.
“It’s something cool for them to be able to share something they’ve done and other kids haven’t,” Zuchetto said. “Usually it’s the other way, where other kids have done things and they haven’t been able to do it because of their disability, but that’s not the case today.”
Yakely and Zuchetto said they hope to offer the program several times a year.
About 40 Air National Guard members attended a ceremony at the end of the day in which Weber and Stolz were awarded certificates and had wings placed on their name tags.
“It means a lot to us to have you join us as honorary pilots,” Col. Don Dunbar said.
Stolz left the flight simulator with a wide smile.
“That was fun!” he yelled. “I want one!”