This Saturday nine boys went out to Gillespe Field to earn their Aviation Merit Badge. This included Troy A, Keith A, Kevin G, Mitchel I, Nathan K, Duncan K, Shane M, Shane S, Jake T. The program is run by the California Flight Academy. Mr Len was they boys instructor. Mr Len was inspired to offer the class since he was scout when he was young.
The boys spent the morning in the class room learning the basics of aviation and flight. There was excellent participation, since many of the boys had already spent some time studying up on the subject. After the class room part was completed the boys broke for lunch with burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. I’m sure the last 30 minutes before lunch were hard, with the grill being on the patio right outside the door and smell of burgers wafting into the class.
The CFA is a full fledged flight school with many students there working on their pilots license and studying for their classes. There were lots of people coming an going and added to the impression that airports are busy, even small ones like Gillespe.
After a few more minutes in class after lunch, the boys were ready to take to the sky. Mr Len turned the boys over to flight instructor pilots. There were three planes available for their use. The planes were 4 seater Cessnas. Each instructor took two boys at a time. One would sit in the pilot’s seat and communicate to the instuctor with headphones, the instructor would sit in the co-pilots seat and one boy would sit in back.
Before take off, the instructors and boys pre-flighted their airplanes. They inspected their planes from front to back making sure all the equipment was in order and the control surfaces were operational. Once loaded into the planes, there were a few more minutes of instruction, the headsets were put on and the planes rolled down the tarmac and were cleared for take off. Take offs and landing were done by the instructors.
Once in the air the planes climbed to an altitude of about 3000 feet, then the boys flew their planes to the Ramona airport which is about 30 minutes away. We were told that each enjoyed the view, that the passengers couldn’t hear much since they did not have headphones and that it was warm so they all flew with the windows open! After landing at Ramona, the pilot scout and passenger scout switched seats and they flew back.
Everyone gave this experience a big thumbs up!
Special thanks to Mrs Khuu for setting this up, thanks also to the parents who were drivers.