EAA Sport Aviation - March 2011

ROD HIGHTOWER

COMMENTARY / TOWER FREQUENCY

is, creating the next generation of aviators.

Those of you who have joined me for a Grassroots Pilot Tour stop have enjoyed a good dialogue about EAA’s plans to grow participation in aviation and create more aviators. We often talk in terms of number of pilots, which is well and good; however, I talk in terms of aviators. There’s a marked difference. Aviators certainly includes pilots, but it also describes those young and old who have a passion for aviation in their hearts and may aspire to become a pilot, builder, restorer, or enthusiast.

Already, the Young Eagles Flight Plan is providing those next steps to young people who are inspired to pursue additional aviation experiences. Those steps include the free online pilot training course through Sporty’s Pilot Shop, first flight lesson certificates, and much more for today’s Young Eagles. We ask every pilot who flies Young Eagles to make sure each young person and parent has that information after their flights.

Still to come, our “Pathways” project will provide critical resources to aspiring aviators, enabling the journey from first flight experience to pilot certification.

Those resources include mentor networks, online information and tools, local airplanes with CFIs, and even scholarships and financial aid.

The Young Eagles concept will be expanded to include adult flight experiences, a welcome to “frequent fliers,” mentoring tools to help a parent enable a child’s journey into aviation, and some fun recognition tools to showcase the achievements of the aspiring aviator.

What can you do to help create the next generation of aviators? I will talk more about that in the next issue of Sport Aviation, and I hope you will join me in the dialogue.

Now, let’s go aviate.

Plans for the future

Creating the
Next Generation
of Aviators

THIS MONTH WILL MARK an important event in the history of EAA’s Young Eagles program. Young Eagles was established in 1992 as a way to engage young people ages 8 to 17 with aviation by providing a flight experience in a GA aircraft free of charge. Thousands of EAA volunteers and hundreds of chapters achieved the incredible milestone of flying one million Young Eagles by the 100th anniversary of flight on December 1 7, 2003. A special thanks goes to Rick Ellis, a dedicated EAA-member pilot from Chapter 22

in Freeport, Illinois, for flying the one-millionth Young Eagle—16-year- old Andrew Grant of German Valley, Illinois, on October 25, 2003.

This month’s event is EAA’s
disclosure of the Young Eagles program’s impact on creating
the next generation of aviators. EAA is revealing to the aviation
community the actual number of pilots, CFIs, A&P mechanics, and
even air traffic controllers who are former Young Eagles in Tom’s
Position Report in this issue of Sport Aviation. I believe you will be
pleased, proud, and pleasantly surprised with the impact EAA has
delivered in creating active pilots.