Learning To Fly

Last weekend, several pilots from Wisconsin and Minnesota volunteered their time and fuel to help local Scouts earn the Aviation Merit Badge.  Each boy went up as co-pilot, actually taking the controls, and flying their planes for portions of the 20 minute flight.  It was a thrilling day for all the boys, and the generosity of the pilots was greatly appreciated. 

Here's Will's plane. 

And Will with his plane's owner and pilot, a member of the Osceola community, Jim Kirvida.

 

Steve, Charlie and I were invited along as Will's passengers.  Charlie was absolutely enchanted by his first airplane ride!

 Each pilot asked the boys where they lived, and then flew them over their neighborhood so they could see how it looked from above.  We pinpointed our property and our pilot circled it so we could snap some photos.  Here's the aerial view of our place. 

And here's a shot of Ben doing the pre-flight safety check on his plane. 

 Ben took no passengers, so it was just him and the pilot.   He was given control of his plane for most of the flight.  He said the pilot was really friendly and told him he was a great student!  He is absolutely enchanted with flying now, and dreams of building a high-tech flight simulator.  Hmmmmm...

Such fun things these boys get to do!