CAA: GA News, "Youngsters take to the friendly skies: Pilots fly children for free to generate interest in aviation"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Monday, March 18, 2002

Youngsters take to the friendly skies: Pilots fly children for free to
generate interest in aviation 
By Matt Gunderson
The MetroWest Daily News - Framingham (MA)


STOW - The Cessna 172 scudded back and forth in a few sharp gusts of
wind as the plane lifted up into a low hanging, wispy ceiling of clouds.


As the plane climbed and left the runway of Minute Man Air Field, Bill
Greenburg, a burly, hazel-eyed pilot from Marlborough talked casually
amidst the occasional jolts about how he had replaced most of the old
parts on his 35-year-old plane and how he had bought the plane four
years ago - the day after John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed.

The wind didn't seem to perturb the red-headed 7-year-old boy in the
cockpit with Greenburg. Throughout the flight, Andrew Hetherington
watched calmly in the passenger seat, as Greenburg banked the plane in
steep angles left to right and maneuvered the plane so that it was
almost flying on its side.

After soaring for about 10 minutes, Greenburg turned his plane back
toward the airport and joined a rectangular dotted line of small
airplanes waiting to land, slowing the plane to 75 mph before making his
final approach.

At 40 mph, the plane stalls, he said; but he would only slow it down to
about 60 before hitting the runway.

As the plane swooped closer to the ground, a light gust buoyed the plane
a little, and the craft bounced as one tire struck the runway before the
other.

"Whenever you make a beautiful landing, nobody's around to see it,"
Greenburg joked, his voice crackling over the headphones.

The flight was a typical one this past Saturday, as kids under 18 from
across the region took to the skies as part of the Experimental Aircraft
Association's Young Eagle Program. The nationwide program's goal is to
launch 1 million youngsters into the skies by the year 2003 - a date
which marks the centennial of the Wright Brothers' historic introduction
of powered flight.

Hetherington, like 14 other youngsters from the region who also took
flights at the airport earlier this month, received a certificate making
him an official Young Eagle. Their names are added to the "World's
Largest Log Book," a compendium of more than 700,000 kids who have
participated in the program so far. The list is available at
www.youngeagles.com.

Event coordinator Charles Smith said Young Eagles rallies are really
about generating interest in aviation among youngsters to help create
the pilots of tomorrow.

"Free airplane rides are just a part of the flight rally," Smith said.
"We hope to build one-to-one relationships between the pilots and young
people, giving a new generation a chance to learn more about the
possibilities that exist in the world of aviation."

A total of five pilots from the program flew youngsters throughout the
morning hours March 9. When the event kicked off at 9 a.m., the fog
cover was so dense over the airport Smith and the other pilots had to
wait a few hours for it to lift.

"There's lots of ways to get scared of flying," said Mark Saklad, one
member who was talking with other pilots outside the chain link fence at
the airport. "We want to make sure we minimize the risks."

Federal standards require 1,000 feet of cloud ceiling and 3 miles of
visibility before planes can take off, said Saklad. Young Eagle pilots
waited until it was well above that requirement before taking kids up,
not only for safety reasons but also for aesthetic ones, he said.

"It's no fun for the kids if they can't see anything," he said. "You
want a nice bright summer day for this kind of thing."

Though skies were still patchy by late morning, kids coming off the
planes said they were able to see for miles around once the planes
started flying.

Lily and Ally Fairman, ages 10 and 9 respectively, of Framingham said
they could see familiar landmarks of their hometown from the sky, just
after landing at about noon.

"It was cool," said Ally. "I liked the steep turns the best."


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