Chapter Eight
NEWS ARTICLES
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Wishes take Wing
Group treats youngsters to free flights
LYDA LONGA
The Daytona Beach News-Journal Staff Writer
SPRUCE CREEK FLY-IN — Rebecca Fleet could not stop giggling as a pilot loaded her into a blue and white single-engine plane.
News-Journal/DAVID TUCKER
Josh Medlin, 11, and his sister Alyssa Medeiras, 5, smile and talk about their ride in a Zlin single-engine plane. A local pilot organization, the Experimental Aircaft Association, spent Saturday fulfilling the wishes of youngsters who had long wanted to ride in either a single-engine, twin-engine or experimental plane.
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The 10-year-old girl, who has cerebral palsy, clutched a stuffed rabbit as she waved wildly to her mother from the back of the small aircraft.
Minutes earlier, 11-year-old Josh Medlin and his 5-year-old sister Alyssa Medeiras, held hands as they climbed into a Zlin single-engine plane, a Czech-made craft. The siblings had been on a commercial jet before, but never had they flown in such a small plane.
Whether they were children with disabilities or pupils from a local middle school, Saturday was the day to fulfill the wishes of youngsters who had long wanted to ride in a small plane.
Pilots belonging to chapter 288 of the Experimental Aircraft Association -- an international organization of amateur pilots who build their own planes or refurbish old ones -- held a Young Eagles Rally for the first time at the Spruce Creek Fly-In airfield. Chapter 288's members are mostly from eastern Volusia and Flagler counties. The organization's West Volusia-based chapter 635 also flies Young Eagles rallies, and plans one next Saturday at 9 a.m. at DeLand Municipal Airport.
The events, designed to introduce youngsters to aviation by giving them free 30-minute flights, are part of the organization's goal to treat 1 million youngsters to a plane ride by Dec. 17, the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers first flight from Kitty Hawk, N.C.
So far, 875,000 children around the world have been treated to free flights through the EAA and its Young Eagles program.
Organizers at Saturday's rally hoped to add another 75 to 100 children to that total as they piled the youngsters -- some needing cushions to be able to look out of the aircraft's windows -- into the small planes and soared over Port Orange and out to the coastline to the Ponce Inlet lighthouse as their nervous parents waited 1,500 feet below.
"Wow!" said Josh Medlin after he finished his ride. "That was a cool experience."
His sister, a blond moppet who squealed with joy, jumped up and down, saying she loved the landing the best because she got to "wave to Mommy."
While Medlin and Medeiras posed for pictures with their pilot, Spencer Lane, Fleet's mother, Deborah Coderre, described her daughter's excitement when she learned of the flying rally from the local Dream-A-Wish group.
Woody Keiser, CEO of the organization, which works to grant the wishes of children with serious illnesses, said many of the kids who are being helped by the group had expressed a desire to ride in a small plane.
"That's all Rebecca has been talking about for the last two days," Coderre said. "That's one excited little girl."
Coderre rode with her daughter and her 16-year-old son William because she wanted to make sure her children were OK.
But the planes, although small, are safe, said Steve Wood, the chapter's Young Eagles coordinator, because they must meet the standards of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Though the word "experimental" is part of the group's moniker, Wood pointed out that not all the planes on the field at Spruce Creek on Saturday were experimental craft, which are often home-built with a kit. Many of the planes used to take up the children were either single-engine or twin-engine aircraft.
"You can have problems in any plane," Wood said. "These planes are just as safe as the certified ones."
FAA officials in Atlanta would not comment on whether experimental and smaller certified planes are riskier than larger aircraft.
"These planes have been around for a long time, longer than 25 years," said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. "The aircraft must be inspected by the FAA while it's being built."
Nonetheless, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, at least 16 amateur-built experimental or small certified planes were involved in accidents in Florida in the past year. Nine of those crashes were fatal.
The most recent accident occurred on Dec. 5 when two men were killed after their experimental plane caught fire and crashed into the Federal Reserve building in downtown Miami.
The pilot and his passenger were on their way home to New Smyrna Beach after attending a Young Eagles Christmas party in the Keys. The plane they were flying in had been used earlier in the day for free rides for several children attending the party. The event was similar to the one Saturday at the Fly-In.
Veteran pilot Lennie Ohlsson, who owns a blue and yellow 1941 U.S. Navy biplane, said the key to flying any aircraft is safety.
"Whenever you can walk away from the plane, that's a good flight," Ohlsson said.
Information and reservations for the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles Rally next Saturday at DeLand Municipal Airport can be obtained by calling John E. "Bear" Moseley at (386) 774-8574.