Getting kids airborne

What is it about flying over one’s house that is so appealing to first-time flyers? I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve purposely taken a passenger to see their home from the air.

We pilots understand the unique perspective of seeing the world from above, but showing anyone the aerial perspective can be life changing.

For Karissa Rivera, Kaylee Welker, Kaitlyn Staub, and Lucas Smith, four Florida high schoolers who took part in the recent Kids Fly Cubs camp, seeing their home from above is no longer a mystery.

Day one of the four-day camp schedule includes “Flight One: Taxi, Takeoff, Run-up, Four Fundamentals, Find Their House from the Air, Landing (40-45 minutes).”

How cool is that?!

Kids Fly Cubs Executive Director Daryl Hickman sent me the photo and filled me in on a few other details.

The Kids Fly Cubs camp is held once a year for four days. The camp is free of charge for the campers, but to be eligible, the high schoolers must be “involved in school or community-based aviation organizations.”

The latest camp was held at Acadia Airport (X06) in Acadia, Florida.

The camp consisted of a thorough introduction to flying and “high quality stick-and-rudder based flight training,” according to Hickman.

Check out this schedule:

Day 1:
Ground: Introduction to Flying the Legend Cub
Flight One: Taxi, Takeoff, Run-up, Four Fundamentals, Find Their House from the Air, Landing (40-45 minutes)
Ground: Rectangular Course, Airport Traffic Pattern Ops and Safety

Day 2:
Ground: Aeronautical Charts, Phonetic Alphabet, View the DC-3 and King Air used with Mosquito Control, Participate in Taco Tuesday Fly-In
Flight Two: Four Fundamentals Review, Rectangular Course in Both Directions, Two Landings in the Pattern to Reinforce the Rectangular Course (1 Hour)
Ground: Review Rectangular Course, Introduce S-Turns and Steep Turns

Day 3:
Ground: Radio Communication and VFR Weather
Flight Three: S-Turns and Steep Turns (30 minutes)
Flight Four: Pattern Practice with 4-5 Landings (30 minutes)
Ground: Pilotage and Dead Reckoning, Cross Country Planning

Day 4:
Flight Five: Mini Cross Country (60-70 mile round trip) with a landing at a different airport (1-1.2 hours) 
Ground:  Visit to the Aviation Maintenance Shop

By the end of the week, each camper logged around four flight hours.

Using a 2015 AL-3 Legend Cub nicknamed “Woodstock” and FAA-certificated flight instructors, Kids Fly Cubs travels to communties in west central Florida to host the camps.

Since the Cub will hold only one student at a time, those on the ground have an opportunity to “meet various general aviation and airline pilots, talk with the airport manager, and learn about different careers (pilot and non-pilot) in aviation,” noted Hickman.

Each camp is in part unique, based on the local opportunities.

“At previous camps, campers have spent a couple hours in an air traffic control tower, visited a magneto repair shop and tested magnetos, visited a firefighting helicopter operation, and flown drones with fire department personnel.”

Aviation has many options beyond just flying or maintaining an aircraft. Kids Fly Cubs helps to expose some of those options. Four kids and one Cub at a time.