Congratulations to Sarah Springborn, EAA 1247462, who soloed on March 25 after starting to pursue flight training last summer thanks to the EAA Eagle Flights Program.
“I grew up in Oshkosh, actually not very far from the airport, so I had been going to AirVenture since I was a little kid,” Sarah said. “I did the Women Soar You Soar program for several years when I was in high school. So I’ve always kind of had an interest, but I didn’t really pursue it until I finished up all my schooling and got a job up here. I was kind of looking for a new hobby and something new to learn. My mom knew [EAA Director of Education] Bret Steffen, so I talked to him and he set me up with [EAA Chapters Administrator] Serena Kamps to do my Eagle Flight with her.”
After her Eagle Flight, Sarah said she spent time talking to Serena about the next steps in flight training and decided to go ahead with it, eventually finding an instructor in Waupaca who has been training her in an RV-12. Sarah was involved in a skiing accident a while back that left her paralyzed for a month and has created some lasting nerve damage. She said this has made flight training more challenging, but she’s overcome it with only a few minor bumps in the road.
“I have lasting neurologic damage, mostly on my right side in my right leg and my right hand,” Sarah said. “Overall it’s been fine. It’s just been a little bit of a challenge to kind of manage those issues. I have manual flaps in this plane so I had to figure out how to get the flaps up and down because that’s with my right hand, which doesn’t work well,” she explained. “I’ve got issues with something called clonus in my right ankle, which is kind of almost like people who tap their legs. The muscle will just kind of fire, so that was a bit of a challenge that I had to deal with when working with the rudders and stuff like that. So there’s definitely been more hiccups along the way, but I got my medical, and I haven’t been having a whole ton of problems with it.”
When the time to solo finally came, Sarah was ready.
“It was crazy,” she said. “It was long overdue. … We had been talking about soloing for maybe a month or so, so it wasn’t quite as terrifying, but it was a different experience not having my instructor there, being all on my own. It was pretty exhilarating, it was pretty cool to realize that I could do it.”
Sarah said her goal is to get her private pilot certificate in the near future and to keep flying for years to come.
“This is purely a hobby for me, so I’m just hoping to get up and take people up and maybe do some instrument training down the line if I get bored,” she said. “Right now, it’s just to have some fun.”
Have you reached a milestone recently? Passed a checkride, given your first or hundredth Young Eagle flight, flown your homebuilt for the first time? Tell us about it at editorial@eaa.org.