In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the EAA Air Academy in 2018, we’re featuring Air Academy graduates whose stories inspire and exemplify the impact of the program.
Sarah Borg, EAA 1146700, was introduced to aviation while her father was building a Thorp T-18, completing the project when Sarah was about 5 years old.
Despite growing up with an airplane in the basement, Sarah said it wasn’t until she attended the EAA Air Academy in 1996 that she realized personally could get more involved in aviation.
“The biggest change that happened in ‘96 when I was a camper is that I started to realize that I could be a pilot,” she said. “I had grown up around flying, my dad was a homebuilder, but it was hanging out with those kids in the summer camp at Air Academy that I started to realize that aviation, or flying, could be part of my life. So it was pretty transformative.”
Sarah enjoyed the Air Academy experience so much that she decided to come back a couple of years later as an intern to help facilitate other campers’ experiences.
Sarah also got off the ground in Oshkosh thanks to a program at the time that allowed EAA interns to take flight training.
“My first solo was in N6YE, the RV-6 out there,” Sarah said. “That was pretty neat, to have that experience of training in Oshkosh and to continue my flying back in Minnesota. A lot of my private pilot was accomplished in Oshkosh.”
A few years after her intern experience, Sarah came back again as a CFI to give flight instruction to others at Oshkosh, an opportunity she said she found truly special.
“As a flight instructor I was able to give some back and get some kids interested in flying the airplanes,” Sarah said. “To be an instructor in Oshkosh is an amazing experience. It was something I really wanted, and I’m amazed I was able to get that position. It was a great opportunity.”
These days Sarah works as an airline pilot and is also the president of her local Women in Aviation chapter in the Twin Cities area.
“We have a big goal, and we spend a lot of time with our Girls in Aviation day to make sure that kids that wouldn’t normally see STEM and aviation are starting to see that as an opportunity,” she said.
Sarah’s chapter has hosted the largest Girls in Aviation days for the last three years, and she said the goal now is to continue carrying that momentum forward.
Although she is busy with her airline flying and work with Women in Aviation, Sarah said she finds time to continue instructing and stay involved in GA when she can.
“I’ve been an instructor in both GA and the airline, but I like to do tailwheel checkouts, flight reviews, those kinds of things I’m able to put in my work schedule,” Sarah said. “I try to attend AirVenture every year and go to fly-ins and give Young Eagle rides.”
Sarah said the volunteers and staff of EAA’s Air Academy deserve much credit for all of the terrific work they do.
“It’s probably not said enough how much the alumni of the Air Academy appreciate the volunteers and staff of the Air Academy,” Sarah said. “For years, Scott Cameron has put his life into it, along with the other staffers. It’s been valuable and life-changing and meaningful to everyone that gets to return back to AirVenture every year, and all the alumni that meet up in the campground. That experience was really important, and the staff created the atmosphere of the Air Academy.”
If you or someone you know has an Air Academy story to share, e-mail Ti Windisch at twindisch@eaa.org.