Nearly 30 Turned Out For Introduction To Flight Saturday

On Saturday morning October 22, 2016, 29 young people from the greater Leesburg, Florida area took to the sky through the EAA Young Eagles Flight program at the Leesburg International Airport.

It was a nice sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky and all these young people accompanied by parents and adult leaders converged on the EAA Chapter 534 hangar to sign up for their exciting rides in an airplane. There was one large group from the Villages United Methodist Church, some Boy Scouts, and some Aviation Explorer Scouts from EAA Chapter 534 Explorer Post.

EAA chapter 534, based at the Leesburg International Airport, is the local unit of national EAA that has its headquarters in Oshkosh, WI. EAA began the Young Eagles program in 1992 and to date have flown over 2 million kids ages 8 to 17 years of age. These flights are designed to encourage young people to become interested in aviation and many of them will go on later to become pilots. There is no for charge this program. It’s all free and run by EAA volunteers.

After they arrive at the airport they fill out the necessary paperwork then meet their EAA pilot who will go through the pre-flight of the aircraft. Next they climb into the plane, put on the headset and get ready for an exciting flight. These flights can last 20 to 30 minutes and they get a bird’s eye view of what the world looks like from 2000 feet .

Many times the Young Eagles actually get a chance to fly the airplane themselves under the watchful eye of their experienced EAA pilot.

As some of the kids got off the plane on this day we heard comments such as "I drove the airplane for real," and "that was awesome," Excitement was the emotion of the day for these young people.

EAA Chapter 534 provided 4 fixed wing aircraft, 1 helicopter and 5 volunteer EAA pilots.  On the ground there were another 8 chapter volunteers handling paperwork, watching over safety concerns on the ramp, giving tours of the hangar and answering questions.

(Images provided with EAA Chapter 534 news release)

FMI: www.534.eaachapter.org