By Samuel Schank, EAA 1678226

I’m not sure exactly how I caught the aviation bug, but it’s safe to say I caught it at a young age. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was at a very impressionable age during the late ‘90s, when the Disney Channel was playing reruns of the show Tailspin, and blockbuster movies for kids my age that involved flying like Alaska, Fly Away Home, and Wild America.

Or the way I could see a sparkle in my father and grandfather’s eye when they spoke about flying. I could tell they thought highly of their relatives who were pilots. Both my dad and grandfather had first cousins who had been private pilots. My grandfather shared how he had taken a ground school class with his cousin, who went on to get his private pilot certificate. And I could hear a little disappointment when he went on to exclaim how he did not continue to learn to fly after ground school, as it had a high price. My dad had been on a number of fly-in fishing and hunting trips, in which he would always share how the flight was his favorite part of the whole trip.

Some of Sam’s earliest experiences with aviation at KLSE. His parents took him to a Civil Air Patrol breakfast in 1997, and a Blue Angels show in 1998.

And my dad also had a couple of first cousins who had gotten their private pilot certificates. One of which, Brian, was my godfather and no doubt helped spark my interest in flying. Brian spent the better half of his career working for a large aviation company and had taken me on a tour of the facility he had worked in when I was a boy, and he often gave me aviation-themed things for birthdays. Even though he quit flying before I was born, Brian had an impact on my interest in flying as well.

To add to all of this, as I got into grade school, my best buddy, Dan Niccum — his uncle worked in Seattle for Boeing, and Dan too was obsessed with flying and dreamt of becoming a pilot. Dan lived not far away from me on a small farm, and every day, twice a day, our school bus would pick us both up and our faces were glued to the window as the bus passed the Holland Air Park, which is a local private air strip where people have houses on the strip. We would scan to see if we could catch a glimpse of an airplane out of its hangar.

I made some attempts to fly in grade school, jumping off the retaining wall at our house with a tent fly, and even making a fairly impressive wing, considering my age, out of some cedar my dad had lying around and some plastic painters tarps I stapled to the cedar ribs that I had also found in my dad’s shop… he wasn’t real happy about me cutting up his nice cedar and cutting up his plastic tarps, but I remember him commenting that it was a pretty impressive wing. I wanted to fly!!

I’m not sure where, but my mom got word about this thing on the first Saturday of every month in the summer where local pilots met at La Crosse Regional Airport (KLSE) and gave free rides. I can remember how excited I was when my mom told me about it, and a few days later we were off to my first Young Eagles event. At the time, I had only flown in airliners and was over the moon to have the opportunity to fly in a small airplane! I can remember how surreal it felt to walk out to the airplane with the pilot, walking around the airplane with him while he told me a little bit about the airplane, smelling of the dew rising off the fresh-cut grass at the airport, and my first whiff of 100LL as I entered the cockpit. Then the pilot yelled “Clear prop!” and cranked the engine to life. The whole airplane arose like a dragon awaking from his slumber, and I was enthralled as I listened to this foreign language that sounded so precise and prestigious, that I now know was the ATIS and taxi clearance. As we taxied to the runway and did run-up, the excitement kept building and building, and as we pulled on the runway and the pilot pushed the throttle to the instrument panel, the airplane roared and my back and head pressed firmly to my seatback as the thrust pulled us forward. Runway signs passed faster and faster, and then finally I felt like I was floating, the world went silent, and the airplane felt smooth as I watched the earth slip away below us. And in that moment, an emotional feeling came over me, and I knew in my heart that one day, I was going to be a pilot.

Sam’s Young Eagles certificate from 2005. A pilot 20 years in the making!

I returned for four more Young Eagles events through the next few years and joined the Civil Air Patrol and did some flying with them as well. I got into building and flying RC airplanes in middle school and had a lot of fun with that. In high school, Dan and I became focused on wrestling, spending time water skiing on the Mississippi River in the summer, and became interested in the opposite gender. Neither one of us lost interest in flying, but neither one of us had the means to take lessons or really knew where to start with the whole thing. I didn’t really understand at that time that there was another path to flying professionally other than flying in the military first. So, I went off to college, and Dan went off to serve five years in the Marine Corps as an aircraft mechanic. 

Years went by, and I began working for my family business and got married. Around this time, Dan came back from the Marine Corps and spent a year at home attending the local technical college, not sure of his next steps.

On a fateful May morning in 2018, I was trout fishing with my dad near his cousin’s house, who is a private pilot. I did not know his cousin, John, very well; however I had heard that he had recently acquired a J-3 Cub and had put in a small strip on his farm. The fishing wasn’t very good, so we decided to go drive around the countryside for a little bit as we often do on our trout fishing adventures. As we passed by John’s farm, he happened to be in his yard, so we pulled in to say hello. John lit up with excitement that we were there and invited us out to his hangar.

John proceeded to give me, my wife, and my dad rides in his J-3 that day. Separately, of course. I have never told John this, but I felt the same feeling in my heart that day in his J-3 that I had felt all those years ago as a boy on those Young Eagles flights. I never lost my interest in flying; however, I cannot deny that that flight that day reignited an old flame. I went home and began trying to find a way I could feasibly get my pilot certificate and afford an airplane.

This event led me to find the Pietenpol Air Camper, and I purchased plans from the Pietenpol family for the Air Camper at this time in 2018. I enthusiastically read the manual that comes with the plans and studied the plans for hours. I had a small wood shop in my basement and wanted to start building ribs, but I ultimately talked myself out of it, as my wife and I were about to start remodeling our first home, and I knew babies were not far in my future. We needed our money for that, and I needed to focus my time and energy on remodeling our house. My professional life was a little unsettled at this point, too. 

So, years marched on and then came the end of my first milestone decade, and I turned 30 years old, with two kids in tow, now in our second home. In the days leading up, I had some serious thoughts about what I had accomplished by 30 and thought about what I would like to do for my 30th birthday. My wife knew I love flying, and I had shown her an article I saw in a local magazine about a place not far away that takes people hang gliding. She encouraged me to go hang gliding, but all I could think about was my dream to build and fly my own powered airplane. It had been five years since I purchased the Air Camper plans, and I had not lost interest in them at all, but I had made zero progress. I couldn’t help but think about how if I had only started building ribs five years ago when I had purchased the plans, I would be done with them by now. Probably even have the tail empennage completed. So, I made some calls and found some Sitka spruce and made a trip to pick some up to start building my Pietenpol Air Camper on my 30th birthday.

Sam has made great progress on the Pietenpol since his 30th birthday.

My old buddy Dan got done with 141 school around this time and came home to work his time-building job, taking aerial photography out of KLSE. We were once again able to spend a fair amount of time together. Dan pushed on me to get my pilot certificate, as he thought it was foolish to be building an airplane and not have a pilot certificate… and I must say, after a year or more of this I began to feel like maybe I do need to find out if I can do this pilot thing before I get too much deeper in this build.

I also was getting a little frustrated, to be honest. I had worked my entire life and dreamt of flying my entire life. I had pushed it off and told myself money will be more plentiful someday, and that I’ll have more time when I’m older. Well, my wife and I were expecting our third child, and the house always needs work, and work is always busy. So, I decided life is never going to slow down. In fact, I feel like all life has done so far is speed up. And it’s always going to be a chunk of change to get a pilot certificate, so now or never.

The good thing is, I had spent so much time wanting to get my pilot certificate that I knew all the pitfalls well. So, I enrolled in an online ground school and told myself that if I could pass the FAA written exam, I would take flying lessons. And that’s exactly what I did. I walked into my first flight lesson a couple months later, having already passed the written exam. I gritted my teeth and pushed through flight training, studying and planning XC flights after we put our kids to bed. And on March 10, 2025, I passed my checkride and became a private pilot. A few days later, I was able to take my dad as my first passenger. And in the weeks to follow, I took my two older kids and my wife. Powerful experiences indeed.

I had been wanting to volunteer as a Young Eagles pilot since I got my certificate, and I finally had the chance this April. Some of the other pilots had warned me to be careful and mindful of what the kids are doing, because sometimes they will mess with radios and controls and such. So, I was a little unsure of what to expect from kids these days.

My first flight of the day, I had a young man who was 15. He was very kind and courteous and reminded me a lot of myself at his age. He was on fire, in love with aviation, and asking all kinds of educated questions. I could tell by his questions that he has a real interest in flying and has spent some time reading and educating himself.

For the second flight, I took three siblings, the youngest of which was her first general aviation flight. I could see the excitement in her eyes, and when I turned on the avionics and got the coms going, I looked back at her to make sure her headset was working, and she was smiling as bright as the sun. Every time I looked back at her through the flight, I could see how much she was enjoying it, and it brought back so many emotions.

Nothing but smiling faces during this Young Eagles flight!

Later in the day when I was at home, the mother of the three siblings I had taken flying friended me on Facebook, and made the sweetest post about how excited the youngest was to finally get to go, as she had watched her siblings get to fly the last few years. She posted a bunch of pictures of the girl smiling ear to ear, and I was there in the background. I didn’t even know most of those pictures were being taken. The emotions finally hit me like a freight train. I broke down in tears sitting there on my couch reading that post, and my wife came over wondering what was going on, as I think she has only seen my cry maybe one other time in the nine years we have been married. And I showed her the post and told her that these Young Eagles flights were my only outlet to general aviation as a kid, and the feeling they gave me was so powerful.

All my life I wanted to be a pilot, but it seemed unattainable, and the sacrifices we had to make for me to finally be able to do it were large. For me to see the joy I was able to bring this girl today, share the dream of flight with her, and show her that someone who sat in her seat was able to make it to the pilot’s seat makes it so worth it. It’s everything I ever dreamed of. 

Flying has always been a powerful emotional feeling for me, and I wondered through my training if I would get emotional the day of my first solo, or the day I passed my checkride, or gave my kids their first ride. I found out that for me, looking in the mirror and seeing myself 20 years ago is what opened the flood gates. I am incredibly blessed and honored to be able to volunteer as a pilot for Young Eagles. What a great group of people who put on Young Eagles events. 

My Pietenpol is coming along. I have the ribs complete, and the rudder and fuselage are pretty far along as well. I am currently working on the landing gear, and I also have an O-200 I am working on overhauling.

Work on the Pietenpol continues.