Lee Helfer, a pilot from The Villages in Florida and a member of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534, recently donated $500 to the chapter’s youth program, called Squadron 534.
Lee’s donation came about from his own good fortune: He recently won $1,500 in the FAA’s WINGS Sweepstakes. The sweepstakes is designed to encourage pilots to compete phases of the WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program. For each phase completed, a pilot gets an entry in the sweepstakes, which awards a total of $10,000 to a number of pilots every year.
According to Lee, the rest of his WINGS award will go towards his in-flight pilot proficiency program and aviation fuel. That means the total amount will be reinvested in general aviation.
It is donations like Lee’s that keep the youth program rolling and enable the chapter to continue to teach young people about the wonders of flight and to train them to build and repair general aviation aircraft, according to John Weber, the chapter’s vice president and director of the Aviation Youth Program, which is run out of the EAA Chapter 534 hangar at Leesburg International Airport (KLEE).
Adult members of the chapter are working with kids in the youth program on two aircraft that they hope will become flight training planes. Once complete, the planes will be turned over to a non-affiliated flying club that the kids can use for dual flight instruction.
Lee said he believes that his local EAA chapter is on the right path by introducing young people to general aviation and wanted to help by sharing part of his prize with them.
Lee has been flying for about 45 years and has accumulated 850 flight hours. He flies a Piper Arrow (PA-28-200R) out of KLEE. He notes he’s always had a strong commitment to help young people learn to fly.
At the present time the chapter’s youth program has been on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The usual Saturday meetings for the young people have been limited to a few of the teenagers who are in the middle of flight training. The chapter is providing a ground school for them under the guidance of the Scholarship Director Gretchen Crecelius and VP John Weber. Masks and social distancing are the order of the day in the hangar.
As soon as this scourge is under control and presents no further health risk to the youth group or chapter members, regular meetings will resume, chapter officials state.