March 15, 2009
Today Jared and Tabitha Yates were in town visiting his dad Ken. Jared is
an airline pilot out of North Carolina and had an overnight stop here in
the Gulfport area so he gave me a call and met me out at Shade Tree to take
a look at the Bearhawk. Jared bought someone else's plans and is just
getting started on his scratch built version.
We took two flights, first with Tabitha up front and Jared in the back, then
we landed, they changed seats and we went up again. It was good because they
both got a chance to fly the airplane plus they both got a chance to experience
riding in the back seat. Unfortunately we had some very heavy rains
last night so the runway was very soggy, affecting the take off performance
more than I would have thought. The wheels were bogging down and we
slung some mud up on the bottom of the wings. I told them that next
time they are through here when its nice, call me and we can go again when
its a bit drier. We still got to fly the coastline and Jared did some
stalls and slow flight. Said he really liked it.
March 21, 2009
Today, Michelle and I participated in a EAA Young Eagles event and got to take 3 high school kids on their first airplane ride ever.
First up was 17 year old Cherokee:
Also pictured is Cherokee's dad.
Next up was 17 year old Riley:
And last but not least was 14 year old Robert:
A fun day for all and hopefully a spark for aviation was ignited in one of
these young people.
June 13, 2009
My EAA chapter held our second Young Eagles fly-in and once again I helped out by taking some young people on their first airplane ride. Once again my wife Michelle came along and helped out with the kids ,and rode along in the back seat to talk with them, keeping the more nervous ones calm.
My first young eagle was 14 year old Wesley:
Next up were two young ladies - 8year old Lydia and 10 year old Miriam. Miriam
sat up front with me and Lydia sat in the back with Michelle:
Next up were 10 year old Courtney and 8 year old Brianna. Brianna sat up
front and courtney was in back with Michelle. These two took an immediate
liking to Michelle and requested that they ride with us and no one else.
Here they are posing with Michelle:
Last up for the day was 12 year old Devon and his Mom. Devon rode up front
with me and Mom and Michelle took the back seat:
That was it for the EAA Young Eagles day. We had a little grilling under the oaks afterward and a good time was had by all.
Click here to go to Bearhawk Riders page 3