2024 Ray Aviation $11,000 Scholarship Awarded By EAA Chapter 534

By Ted Luebbers

Isaiah Kadletz of Mount Dora, FL has received the 2024 Ray Aviation $11,000 scholarship awarded by the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534. A formal award presentation was held on May 11, 2024 at the Leesburg International Airport prior to the chapter’s monthly Young Eagle rally to honor this conscientious young man.

Isaiah has been active in Chapter 534’s aviation youth program, Squadron 534 for several years. He attends regular Saturday work sessions in the chapter’s hangar and works closely with several of his adult mentors. For the last couple of years, he has been learning the necessary skills needed to build an all-aluminum aircraft. He has worked closely with Wayne Broadfield, certified Airframe and Power Plant aircraft  mechanic, and Mark Banus building a Murphy Rebel single engine plane.

Isaish’s interest are diverse, he is interested in learning how to fly as well as how to build and repair aircraft. He took his first Young Eagle flight at the age of eight with EAA Chapter 534 at the Leesburg International Airport. Now at age 16 he will begin flight instruction at the same airport. His long-term goal is to become a missionary pilot. To get there he says he wants to get his Private Pilot License, instrument rating, seaplane rating, and tailwheel endorsement.

The $11,000 Ray Aviation Scholarship will help move him along the path he has plotted for himself. This will help pay for a large portion of his initial expense for flight training. He will do this at Sunair Aviation at the Leesburg International Airport in Florida. The Ray Aviation Scholarships are provided by the Ray Foundation and are managed by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh WI.

The scholarships are administered through affiliated and prequalified local EAA Chapters. EAA Chapter 534 has been qualified by the national organization and has had the honor to award the Ray Scholarship on five previous occasions and Isaiah’s will be number six.

At the Leesburg, FL chapter young people who wish to compete for the Ray Scholarship must be active within the chapter's aviation youth program, appear for an interview by the scholarship committee, and prepare an essay as to their interest in aviation. The committee then makes a recommendation to the board of directors of Chapter 534 for their approval.

Chapter 534 is proud of all that Isaiah has accomplished so far and wish him well on his journey to become a missionary pilot.

FMI: www.eaachapter534.org, www.eaa.org/RayScholars