Challenge Air looking for volunteers at day for disabled children at Felts Field in June

The third annual Challenge Air For Kids and Friends Fly Day at Felts Field is set for June 24, and organizers are looking for volunteer pilots and kids with special needs who want to spend some time in an airplane as a co-pilot.

Challenge Air is a national nonprofit organization founded by pilot Rick Amber in 1993 to help children change their perception about their disability and not limit their dreams and goals. Amber was a Navy pilot who became a quadriplegic when his jet crashed during a carrier landing.

Fly Day is free for special needs children and youth ages 7-21. Those who register in advance will have the chance to take a 20-minute flight, including a turn on the controls. The flights will be based out of the Historic Flight Museum at 5829 E. Rutter Ave.

John Sessions, who owns the museum, said he rolls out the red carpet to make it a fun, VIP experience for the kids, complete with a crowd cheering them on as they go to the plane. Inside the hangar there will be food from Longhorn Barbecue, music, face painting and a few historic planes and automobiles to look at.

“We convert the hangar into the Barnum & Bailey Circus,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”

Many of the youth who come have Down syndrome or autism, and it’s a chance for them to meet other children like them and have some fun. Though each child will have an assigned flight time during the day, many come early or stay late so they can watch the plane take off and land.

“Some of them are here at the end of the day,” Sessions said.

Challenge Air is partnering with the Spokane Central Lions Club to host the event. Many club members serve as ground volunteers, though nonmembers are welcome to volunteer as well.

The first year the event was held in Spokane it was scheduled in August, during the thick of wildfire season. On the scheduled day, the air was so smoky that flights were grounded and most of the volunteer pilots couldn’t get to town. The local pilots let the kids who were able to make it taxi up and down the runways. The decision was made to move the event to June, and last year’s event was a success, drawing 60 special needs youth.

Going up in a plane and taking the controls can be a life-altering experience, said Steve Ball, Central Lions past president. “For almost all of them it’s the best thing they’ve ever done,” he said.

Ball shared the story of a 12-year-old blind girl who was scheduled for a flight. She was withdrawn and stayed huddled up to her mother, reluctant to even be there. But after her flight she jumped off the plane and spread her arms wide, declaring that since she could fly a plane, she could do anything, Ball said.

“It was a total personality change,” he said.

The experience can be as moving for the volunteers as it is for the participants and their families, Sessions said.

“If you can go the whole day without crying, you’re a rock,” he said.

Ball said it’s an experience he looks forward to.

“It’s the most exciting thing we do each year and our club is active,” he said. “It’s not just that it’s fun. It’s that it is so meaningful.”

Special needs youth can sign up for a flight at challengeair.org before June 19. Ground volunteers and pilot volunteers can also sign up on the site, which does not work on mobile phones. Pilots must have at least 500 hours of flight time, insurance and their own plane.

Families who sign up in advance will be sent their assigned time and instructions. Flights will begin at 9:30 a.m. on June 24.

The more pilots that sign up, the more children can fly, said Gary Guenther, Central Lions past president. “We would like to build this event to 100 if we can find enough pilots,” he said.