JROTC students have marched on land and have now glided the air in a once in a life time opportunity.
Jim Utterback, Community School Director and member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), recently took some students from the JROTC Academy on a free airplane ride through the Young Eagles program.
“I wanted to give kids who may be interested in joining the Air Force, Navy, or any military career an experience in aviation.” said Utterback.
The EAA is an international aviation association that sponsors educational aviation programs such as the Young Eagles program. This program gives students between the ages of eight and seventeen the opportunity to learn about different elements of aviation such as understanding an aeronautical chart, inspecting the aircraft, and identifying the different controls.
Each student was also given the chance to fly the aircraft (with the volunteer pilot in full control) for about 10 minutes of the 20 minute flight. Once the flight was over, they were given a Young Eagles logbook signed personally by their volunteer pilot.
“It was really fun,” said junior Joceline Tellez. “Once I got up there, it was an amazing feeling. I want to be a pilot for the military in the future, and this kind of motivates me to work harder in school so I can get where I want to go.”
