2003 Southbridge Youth Aviation Day

By anyone's measure, the day proved to be a remarkable success. … In case you missed it, the Worcester T&G gave us credibility with a great article in the following Monday⤙s edition. In that article, Jack Kvalita is quoted as saying that the whole purpose of this outreach program is to get the community involved with the airport and with aviation in general. Every WAPA member can take pride in our organization, and the knowledge that WAPA did its part to achieve this goal, and maybe, just maybe, we⤙ve encouraged a couple new private pilots in the years to come.

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As Saturday, May 3rd approached, we all watched the weather pretty closely. There was a frontal boundary stretching from the mid-plains states eastward over New York and Southern New England, spawning numerous disturbances during the week prior to our scheduled Youth Aviation Day at Southbridge airport. The system produced numerous cold and warm front passages over our local area for several days prior to Saturday.

The weather briefers were calling for Northeast winds gusting over 20 knots, with winds aloft at 3000 feet in the high thirties. Worcester ATIS was calling 6000 broken, but I had to stay below 2,500 feet from Hanscom Field at 8:30 Saturday morning to stay below a broken ceiling at that level. It looked like a lousy weather day to take eager kids on their first airplane ride.

As the day unfolded, it became apparent that nothing could have been further from the truth. The morning started out cloudy and cool, with the forecast northeast wind blowing straight down runway 02 in Southbridge. Shortly after 9am, a few kids were actually gathered ready for their first ride. Alex and his Mom from Auburn were among the first to arrive. They had read about the event in the Worcester T&G. Mom was just a little hesitant, but not Alex. When the ride was over, Alex, like all the other kids who went flying, was grinning from ear to ear.

Later in the morning, a large group of boys started to crowd the registration desk. The boys were from Valley View Private Boys School in N. Brookfield. They, too, had read about the event in the T&G. My first "Young Eagle" was a boy from Valley View named Matt. I think Matt was about 14 or 15. He had never been up in a small plane before. As part of the experience, the pilot would introduce the airplane by doing a brief walk-around, explaining the pre-flight inspection we perform. Then we climbed aboard for Matt's first flight experience.

As we climbed out of Southbridge, I pointed out a couple other airplanes, and Matt was absolutely thrilled. I invited him to follow through on the controls with me. Soon, he was executing turns and level flight. By the end of the flight, Matt was absolutely hooked, and was already dreaming about one day owning his own airplane.

Matt was typical of most of the kids that took their first ride. I didn't see a single kid that got out of the airplane scared or uncomfortable. They all were thrilled with their first flight experience. Of course, we all hope that by donating our time and airplanes for the Young Eagles program, we might just have sparked the passion in a future private pilot.

There were plenty of WAPA members behind the scenes who made this event possible. Our very own WAPA Board Member Jack Kvalita was responsible for organizing the event. Mark Catanese was designated as public relations spokesperson, and he managed to get the word out through WXLO and Worcester T&G. WXLO even sent a couple representatives to the event. Mark also got David Clark to attend and show their wares in a "trade-show" style, with their flagship products on display for all to see. Everest Construction and Eagle Air Charter donated t-shirts for the event, and each of the Young Eagles was given a t-shirt as a memento of the day.

Rosemary Kvalita manned the registration table. The pilots on hand included George Clark, Ken Brown, Mark Catanese, Charlie Entwistle, Jim Engberg, Cary Dillman, Roger Witt, Gregg Andrews and myself. There were several other WAPA members on hand to help out with the event.

By anyone's measure, the day proved to be a remarkable success. I believe we gave rides to almost 30 kids throughout the day, and introduced general aviation to many more (parents, siblings, reporters, etc.) Plans are already in the works for the next event, and we have every reason to believe that the popularity of this event will continue to grow.

In case you missed it, the Worcester T&G gave us credibility with a great article in the following Monday's edition. In that article, Jack Kvalita is quoted as saying that the whole purpose of this outreach program is to get the community involved with the airport and with aviation in general. Every WAPA member can take pride in our organization, and the knowledge that WAPA did its part to achieve this goal, and maybe, just maybe, we've encouraged a couple new private pilots in the years to come.

Submitted by Chris Hallinan

I agree with Chris - the organizers did a great job, and the day was a smashing success. I can't wait for the next event.

I gave 4 rides, and created 3 new Young Eagles. One of the kids was a bit too young to qualify, I elected to go ahead with the ride anyway, and that's the one that ended up with a photo in the Paper.

All the kids had a great time. Some of them were a bit aprehensive in the beginning, but all were excited by the end. In a couple of cases, I suspect that the parents in the back seat were the real "Young Eagles". They were easily as excited as the kids, and I'll bet that at least one came away hooked on getting into flying themselves.