Middle school flyers

http://www.wggb.com/2012/04/25/middle-schoolers-fly-above-western-mass/

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WGGB) — From take off to touch down, a group of middle school students in Northampton got the chance of a lifetime on Wednesday.
“It was the most incredible thing that I’ve ever done,” said Miriam Gora, an eighth grader at JFK Middle School.
With help from an actual pilot, thirteen and fourteen year old students from the only public middle school in Northampton were flying single engine planes above Western Mass. The flights made parents of the students both proud and anxious.
“She does not have her drivers license and when she’s about to take off I said wait a minute,” said Michael Gora jokingly. “She doesn’t know how to drive. She’s never been behind the wheel of anything!”
But for the young aviators the nerves went away as soon as they got off the runway.
“It was kind of scary at the beginning when i didn’t really know what it was like,” said Miriam Gora. “When you get up there you realize its easier than it looks.”
Students got a birds eye view of the Quabbin Reservoir, the Connecticut River, UMass Amherst and even their own homes.
“It was really awesome seeing everything,” said Sam Ansaldo. “It’s really hard to tell what buildings are which, but you can kinda tell some of them.”

I worked (for two days) for the flight school that helped make this happen. They are really good people.

Thats awesome! I love to see anyone, but especially young people inspired by aviation.

Cool story, wish I had been able to do something like that when I was their age.

Just saw this;

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c4#/video/us/2012/04/28/freedom-of-flight.cnn

Cool stuff.

Cool video. Seems like they would have a hard time seeing over the glareshield.

That is awesome!

Wow I don't know how I missed this thread! I used to work for Northampton for a little over 2 years. Did all my training there and than instructed. We did flights for middle schools kids a couple times a year, and it was always a good time, but I don't think we ever got reporters in to shoot a story, really cool that they did that!. In the summer time the school holds a summer camp for kids too that are interested in aviation.

@BobDDuck ,when did you work there??

Very neat! I'm sure the kids loved it. Which reminds me... is the Young Eagles program still around?

I was there for two days in the fall of 2004. I'd just finished up at ATP and was waiting on a class date to be i for them and came back to Amherst to wait. NoHo hired me in the meantime. I did one checkout/interview flight on a Sunday, a BFR for a guy on Monday and then got a call to be in Jax for class starting Wednesday. The guys there were really nice to work with though and it was awesome to be flying around where I grew up.

Yeah they still do flying days for kids at various airports

This is awesome! It's amazing how young you can be and know you want to be a pilot. My 5 year old niece is already interested in aviation! haha