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SIERRA VISTA — Boys and girls are getting a higher perspective of the Upper San Pedro Valley.
On Friday, the Imagine Charter and Our Lady of the Mountains elementary schools brought out 144 schoolchildren to participate in the first day of the annual Sierra Vista Municipal Airport Fly-In and open house, which is intended to introduce aviation to the children.
The fly-in, which is sponsored by Sierra Vista Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 776, continues this morning with an event open to the public.
Our Lady of the Mountains fourth-grader Mikala Hadfield enjoyed her free flight Friday.
 Ryan Sheehan, a fourth-grader at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic School, looks over the cockpit of a T34A Beechcraft on Friday at the Sierra Vista Municipal Airport. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
“Yeah, I loved it. It was so fun,” Hadfield said. “Everything looked little.”
Our Lady of the Mountains third-grader Gaia Schrimpsher was not intimidated by the flight since she had flown before, but she said she is much more interested in a veterinary career rather than one in aviation.
Kids need a parent’s permission to take their free flight, and those slips are available at the fly-in.
About 300 or 400 people participated in last year’s fly-in, and at least as many are expected this year, Sierra Vista transportation secretary Janet Laduke said.
On Friday, local pilot Jim Hanke showed off his Extra 300 aerobatic craft in one of the static displays, letting youngsters pose for photographs in the cockpit and telling stories about his flying.
“They clocked me at over 200 knots going back from the aerobatic area,” he said.
Hanke performs gut-wrenching tricks, and had the configuration of a few of them on a card he pulled from his pocket.
“This airplane rolls over at 420 degrees per second,” Hanke said.
About that time, public works engineer Bryan Mills brought a group of junior high students over to view Hanke’s plane.
“The biggest thing that the kids like to do is they like to touch stuff,” Mills said. “But I have to say, the best thing they like to do is getting in the plane and flying.”
An Army turbo prop RC-12 also was on display, with kids getting to climb inside and check it out. Bravo Company’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training Battalion presented a Shadow 200 unmanned aircraft system for the kids Friday to examine.
More aircraft displays, crafts and free flights for the kids are available today. According to the Public Works Department, more than 4,000 children ages 8 to 17 have flown in the annual fly in since it began in 1995.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.
