June 18, 2003
Aircraft association provides kids free flights
Experimental Aircraft Chapter 234 takes 130 children for flight around Traverse City airspace
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Eyes shining, faces eager, 130 children took a spin in a magnificent flying machine Saturday at the M-TEC Building for a 20-minute flight in Traverse City airspace.
The flights were courtesy of the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 234 based in Traverse City, which has brought together kids and planes for the past two years. This year's event was part of a nationwide effort by the association members to fly more than one million kids in 2003. The association is doing this in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brother's flight at Kitty Hawk.
"It was really fun, the Bay was so little all the colors blended together," said Korinne Diss, 12, after a flight with her sister and a friend.
Eleven planes were on hand for the event, though not all of them were airborne at one time. Volunteer pilots, including members of the Northwestern Michigan College's Aviation program, shepherded their youthful passengers over points of interest: their school, home and the Grand Traverse Bay.
Children came to the M-TEC building from area Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops as well as students from area schools. Each child received a Young Eagles certificate for participating.
"We went out to Power Island and up the Peninsula and turned around and came back here," said Heather Durham, 12, Diss's friend and co-passenger. "The most fun was when we looked down and the cars were so little, like my brother's Hot Wheels toys."
With sparkles in her eyes, Durham recounted another memory she will take home.
"I got to fly the plane," she said. "It was really interesting, almost exactly like a car."
Boy Scout Aaron Burkemo, 10, enjoyed the take off and landing the most. But there was one aspect of flying he decided he could live without.
"I didn't like turning, it tips you over like this," he said while flying his hand sideways.
The Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 234 hopes to make the flight day a bi-annual event. Eric Okerstrom, coordinator of the Young Eagles program, said what motivates chapter members to host the event includes sharing their love of aviation and the hope that the experience might inspire future pilots.
He believes the experience could open up a whole new world for youth inundated with mass media stimulation. Okerstrom always gets a charge out of what he terms the up-front inspiration of flying.
"I think a lot of kids today are saturated, it takes a lot to break them out of 'just another day on earth,' kind of things," he said. "When they get around airplanes they understand that there is something special, it is a unique perspective on the world and that there is a seriousness about it. And it is fun."
Okerstrom noted that for kids who later grow up and become pilots, they often vividly remember their first airborne experience.
"I remember my first flight distinctly," said Okerstrom, a 20-year Navy pilot who flew both helicopters and airplanes. "My dad was a fighter pilot from World War II and he and a friend had an old plane. I was four years old when I first flew and it is probably my first memory.