Eight pilots give their time and planes to take about 25 kids into the air, one at a time, from Tampa Bay Executive Airport.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published June 14, 2004
[Times photo: Erik Jacobs]
Nicole Haugen, 16, of New Port Richey looks away from the controls toward the Gulf of Mexico during a 20-minute flight Saturday from Tampa Bay Executive Airport. The plane ride was part of the local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter's annual Young Eagles event.
Eleven-year-old Jonny Linger, right, of Odessa studies a handout of flying facts provided at Saturday's Young Eagles event and identifies parts of a plane for his father, Steve Linger.
ODESSA - The 8-year-old still had red marks around his ears from the radio headset as he cracked open a can of root beer.
"I was up like 50 feet," Tyler Lynch said. From way up there, he said, "the cars looked like little, small minicars."
It was Tyler's first time in an airplane, and he even got a chance to steer. Tyler's friend Steven Riddle went up in a separate flight but turned down his chance to work the controls.
"I didn't want to," said Steven, also 8. "I was too busy looking down."
They showed up Saturday morning for the local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter's annual Young Eagles event. Eight pilots volunteered their time and airplanes to give kids free 20-minute rides from Tampa Bay Executive Airport.
"We fly one kid at a time no matter how big the airplane is," said Theresa Ransopher, one of the event's organizers. That way, she said, each child gets to try flying the plane and work one on one with a pilot.
About 25 kids turned out for the event this year. "That's light compared to normal," Ransopher said. "We usually have 75 to 90 kids."
Those who came were treated to a thrill.
"I was scared at first, but it was really cool," said Nicole Haugen, 16. She took her first turn flying an airplane less than a year after she learned to drive a car.
"It's cool to drive a plane because you don't have a lot of other cars to worry about and things like that," she said.
But the engine and the electronics, she added, seemed a bit more complicated.
Nicole's pilot, Harris Sullivan, 65, said during the past several years, he has given nearly 300 kids rides in his Cessna 172. He takes them up to about 1,200 feet and points out landmarks along U.S. 19. The first-timers, he said, often are a little scared, but then they loosen up.
"Usually, when I get them back down, they've got a big smile, and all the apprehension is gone," Sullivan said.
"That's the reward, seeing the smile at the end of the flight."
