By David Cheney, EAA 450036
It was a beautiful day to fly! The air was cool and crisp, the sky was spectacularly clear with a high, thin overcast, and there was not a bump to be found in flight. It was the kind of November morning pilots dream about, and here we all were, assembled to support and fly approximately 50 extremely excited kids between the ages of 8 and 17 at the monthly EAA Chapter 1 Young Eagles event at Flabob Airport in Riverside, California.
With 10 pilots available and plenty of volunteers ready to help, the event was going very smoothly. We started our flights early, and by about 11:30 the majority of kids had been flown and the lineup of kids waiting for flights on the park benches had dwindled to just a few. I had just completed a flight, and was escorting my latest newly crowned Young Eagle back to his waiting parents, when I was approached by one of the adult chaperones with a request to fly a 14-year-old girl who, he said, was very afraid to fly.
“Of course,” was my reply. Over the years I have flown quite a few kids with a fear of climbing into an airplane, and the experience has always been a positive one for both me and the kids I have flown. I believe all Young Eagles should at least have the opportunity to take the controls and fly the airplane, and in all my years of flying in the Young Eagles program, I’ve never had a kid not take the controls for at least a few minutes in flight. “This one is special,” said the chaperone. “She has been crying on and off since she finished ground school, yet she still is expressing an interest in at least attempting to go for an airplane ride.”
As the two of us approached the bench where the girl was waiting, I could see the dampness in her eyes and the pink tone of her cheeks. Yet she appeared to be composed and in control of her emotions. However, as soon as I was introduced as the pilot for her flight, she broke down sobbing. I sat down next to her and spoke softly, reassuring her that everything would be okay since she was in complete control of whether she participated, and then I asked her if going for a flight was something she really wanted to do.
The strength of her resolution to fly surprised me, even as her voice struggled to cut through her emotional tears. She told me that although she was terrified of heights and at the thought of flying, participating as a Young Eagle was something she simply had to do. She said she would be too embarrassed to face her mother if she didn’t at least attempt to conquer these fears.
Once she had regained her composure, we approached my airplane and I assisted her with climbing into it and with securing her seatbelt and shoulder harness. As she settled in and became somewhat comfortable, she reminded me, for what was probably the fifth or sixth time, “This will be an airplane ride only! I DO NOT even want to touch the controls!”
“No problem,” I said as I settled in and then started the engine. “I promise you this will be a nice, gentle flight, and you are the boss regarding what you choose to do or not do while we are in the air!”
For 14, she was tall. Tall enough that I could see her feet could reach the rudder pedals and that she could reasonably see out of the windscreen while we taxied on the ramp. This is not always easy to accomplish in a big taildragger like a Cessna 180; even some adults struggle to reach the controls. I could also see that she was starting to calm down a bit, so I gently convinced her to put her feet on the pedals so she could feel and see how an airplane turns on the ground. She seemed to enjoy this and for a moment forget her fears. However, as soon as we reached the end of the taxiway and prepared for takeoff, the fear on her face returned, her body tensed, and with a crack in her voice she defiantly exclaimed in no uncertain terms that her time of doing anything other than being a passenger was over.
The takeoff, climb out away from the airport, and level-off in cruise flight went well. My Young Eagle, although tense and quiet, seemed to have her emotions mostly in check, but occasionally I could see a tear or two well up in her eyes. Thankfully, the air remained very calm with no wind or updrafts to spoil the smoothness of the flight. So it was at this point of leveling off that I took a risk and asked her to place her hands lightly on the control wheel and her feet lightly on the rudder pedals. I reassured her that I would be the one flying the airplane while she would only be feeling the control inputs necessary to keep the plane level or to change the direction of flight. Surprisingly, after a long, concerned look in my direction, she complied with my request, and placed her hands and feet on the controls without any objection.
As we headed east away from the airport, I demonstrated to my new co-pilot how to use the control wheel to bank the plane left and right, how to pitch the plane gently up and down, and then by using our feet, how to yaw the plane from side to side. Once we completed these maneuvers, I showed her how to make coordinated turns through the use of all the controls, and then after making a turn, how we return the aircraft to straight and level flight.
As the flight continued, I slowly and continuously relaxed my touch on the control wheel until I had reached the point of completely letting go without her realizing it. Yet I never stopped coaching her over the intercom or reassuring her of how well she was doing. She was an amazing pilot, a real natural! She had a nice light touch on the controls with a good feel of what she needed to do to control the plane through all phases of flight. And then, without her knowledge, I slowly eased my seat backwards until I was at a point of about a three-quarter seat length behind her. It was then that I pulled her cell phone out of my seat pocket and used it to video her while she flew the plane. You see, as with all Young Eagles I fly, I asked her if I could hold her phone while she climbed aboard the plane, and then I slid it into my seat pocket for safekeeping. As in previous flights, it turned out to be an excellent decision!
For the next five to six minutes, I recorded her flying the aircraft as we banked around the foothills bordering Box Springs Mountain and the surrounding terrain. Everything was captured: the movement of her hands on the controls, the intense focus of her eyes on the terrain, and the movement of the tops of the foothills outside the windscreen as we flew along the ridge tops. With minimal coaching from me, she instinctively knew what controls to manipulate to maintain the desired path of flight. As the flight progressed, it was apparent she was becoming more and more comfortable within the cockpit. It was at this point that I asked her softly over the intercom if she knew she was flying the plane on her own. To which she answered silently with a headshake in the affirmative motion, never taking her eyes off the horizon in front of us. And then I asked her to turn and to look at me. When she did she saw me holding the phone in the camera position. What remained of her tense demeanor slowly disappeared, and her face broke into a huge smile! She lingered there for a moment while she smiled at me, and then of course I said to her, in a rather demonstrative and comical tone, “Why the heck are you staring at me? You’re flying the plane; you should be focusing your attention out the windscreen!” And then we laughed over the intercom for the next few moments as the irony of the whole situation began to settle in.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. My Young Eagle flew the airplane back to the airspace surrounding Flabob, and then I took the controls to fly the pattern and to make the landing, all the while focusing on as smooth a touchdown and rollout as possible. As we taxied back to the event staging area, I could see her mom anxiously awaiting our arrival as she strained against the rope barrier between the park area and the taxiway. Mom could no longer contain herself after I had safely secured the airplane and opened the passenger door, so she ran out with a chaperone in tow to check on the well-being of her daughter. Without a word, the question expressed by the look on mom’s worried face of “Well?” was enthusiastically answered by her daughter’s trembling voice with, “Mom, I not only rode in the plane, but I also took the controls and flew it!” Rightfully doubting her daughter’s response, mom looked at me and said, “No way!” To which I replied, “Oh yes, and I have the flight recorded on her phone to prove it!” And then both mom and daughter let out a scream of total surprise and delight, and then bear-hugged each other in a joyous, tear-filled embrace. Priceless!
As Young Eagles pilots and EAA chapter members, we tend to focus much of our attention on the kids who aspire to pursue aviation, either in one of the many career fields that aviation has to offer, or with an interest in learning to fly and becoming a recreational pilot, and rightfully so. EAA Chapter 1 has had many success stories with kids who were initially introduced to aviation by participating in a Young Eagles event, and then with the help of fostering and mentoring, have gone on to become chapter members, volunteers at chapter events, and have competed for aviation scholarships or for the opportunity to attend EAA’s Air Academy. Since the inception of the EAA Young Eagles program in 1992, Chapter 1 has had more than a few of these Young Eagles who have gone on to complete flight training, obtain their pilot certificate, and then return to pay it forward by flying kids at a Chapter 1 Young Eagles rally.
However, for many of our kids, the opportunity to fly as a Young Eagle represents the thrill of a lifetime that may never be repeated. For some, the closest they will ever be to an aircraft other than their Young Eagles flight is when one passes over their home or school. For others, spending a happy and joy-filled day surrounded by friends, family, and supportive Young Eagles pilots and chapter members shows them the caring side of those only wanting the best for them as they grow, mature, and experience the world around them.
Sometimes, a Young Eagles event is a bright spot in an otherwise challenging and difficult life. And in the case of my Young Eagle, this very special flight gave one child the opportunity to overcome what could have been the greatest obstacle she may ever face. This very brave girl not only arrived at the airport that November day with an unwavering resolve to conquer her deep fear of flying, but she courageously took the controls of the airplane and flew it with the confidence to succeed. She may never take flight in a small aircraft again, but what an awesome story she has to share with her grandkids someday. And the best part about it: She has the video to prove it!