By Dustin Sievers, EAA 635420
My nephew, Tayten Rentfrow, is a happy, rambunctious youngster full of energy and always after the next adventure. Doesn’t matter if it’s flying in a semi open cockpit Cub, chasing down blue racers on my farm, running the creeks with Grandpa looking for Native American artifacts, or trying to ride an unbroken donkey, he is always full of energy.
I own N87714, which is a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub with 85 hp. Tayten went for his first flight on August 10, 2017. In one picture you may notice he is reading a book. The book is How to Fly a Piper Cub. I thought we were just going for a ride and yet he wanted to learn to fly that day. He would not settle for just a ride. So at the young age of nearly 7 I handed him that book while I was working in the hangar and he sat down on the tire and read it cover to cover.
I was a bit surprised he would want to ride with the doors open as we all do in a Cub, but yet he was ready. We climbed in and off we went, once again he was reminding me this was not a ride but a lesson. As you can see in picture two, he wanted the controls. I am an ATP and MEII as well as an A&P. This was his first flight lesson so I did not do his TSA endorsement. Those eyes should show the deep thoughts of concentration on the instruction I was giving him at the time.
Why is this so special to me? Although I would like to fly full time and even did a short time at a regional, I have yet to find that perfect pilot job. Currently, I am a middle school teacher at S.T.A.R. Quest Academy. SQ is an alternative school under the Regional Safe School Program. We educate students who have been referred to our program from traditional K-12 districts. Many of our students have experienced trauma during childhood and we are a trauma informed school. Tayten had a tumultuous upbringing prior to my parents stepping in, so I have always been concerned about him and where life will take him. So far the early trauma he experienced has not greatly affected his desire to learn, his overall happiness, and his fearlessness of trying new things such as flying in a Cub.
