Mon, Jul 26, 2010
Building On A Dream
By Dan Billingsley
Imagine being back in high school with an interest in aviation
and not really knowing where to plug in. You go out to the airport,
kick around watching the planes come and go and it is hard to know
where to start. How can a kid get a break to build on a dream when
things cost so much? Many kids just need a little help to point
them in a direction which could be a life-changing experience. This
is where Michael den Hartog and Phil Benedetto stepped into the
lives of 15 Boy Scouts in Birmingham, AL.
(L-R) Jeffery Manien, Nick Hiros
Hartog and Benedetto had been looking for a way they could
connect youth with aviation. They found the format they were
looking for with the BSA Aviation Explorers and started post 491.
In June 2009, the Post was donated a Kitfox III kit by Cypress
Aviation and they were off and running. The Aviation Explorers were
either invited to join or there was an application process, as
there is a strict aviation curriculum to be followed. Each phase of
the building had its own expert who would coach, instruct and
inspect the student work. As you can imagine, this provided a high
level of quality control. Their plan of attack was to work on
weekends at an average of 17 hours between Saturday and Sunday. The
plane was completed in 9 months.
Jeffrey Mannien, age 15, and 18-year-old Nick Hiros are two of
the Scouts that came to AirVenture. Their purpose for being here is
to raise enough funds to "keep the project alive". They are taking
varied donation amounts which give the donator an opportunity to
win the completed plane. When asked what their favorite part of the
build was, both said the fabric covering as well as rib-stitching
the wings. Mannien plans to pursue a career in commercial aviation
and Hiros enters college this fall to begin a degree in Aerospace
Engineering.
Kitfox III
We all know the future history of
aviation dwells in the youth of today. For these 15 kids, their
dreams have started to gel and their futures are now a little more
defined.
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