Brandon Rakes, director of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, heads to the runway on Saturday with a trio of Young Eagles fliers in his plane.
Dustin Wallace of Lacey gives a Young Eagles participant a tour of his aircraft before taking her on a short flight.
A Young Eagles passenger looks out the window as his plane taxies to the runway on Saturday in Chehalis.
A row of airplanes owned by pilots volunteering for the Young Eagles day hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association line a taxiway at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport.
Young Eagles fliers wave out of an airplane piloted by Brandon Rakes, director of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, on Saturday in Chehalis.
A retooled format and added on-site attractions sent the annual Young Eagles event at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport soaring to a level previously unseen by event organizers.
More than 200 children ages 8-17 took advantage of the opportunity for free flights inside small airplanes owned by volunteer pilots who flew in for the day from across the region.
Nervous smiles at ground level gave way to exhilaration and wide-eyed grins from even the smallest copilots as they returned to the staging area after getting a birds-eye view of Southwest Washington.
“I think today was an incredible success,” said Brandon Rakes, operations manager of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport and one of the 13 pilots who rotated between land and sky throughout the morning and afternoon. “We increased the number of kids flown from last year to a huge number, about 211 based on our count, so it was a really awesome community event. It was great to see so many people from the community have a hand in it being a great success.”
The Experimental Aviation Association started the Young Eagles program more than 25 years ago with the goal of introducing children, particularly those who haven’t flown before, to the world of air travel. Local chapters across the country hold events for the next generation of aviation enthusiasts.
Dustin Wallace flew down from Lacey to volunteer after pitching in at recent Young Eagles events in Puyallup and Sequim. Wallace moved to Washington last month from the Los Angeles area, where he served as lead coordinator for one of the EAA chapters.
“There was one time when I had a kid with me who was getting really nervous as we taxied out,” Wallace said. “He was really quiet, so I told him we could land immediately once we got up there, if he still didn’t like it. As soon as we go wheels up, he’s like, ‘Wow, this is so cool!’ It’s an experience most of them haven’t ever had before.”
Not all of the the kids in attendance were there to take to the skies. Timothy Bowes, a 14-year-old Young Eagles member from Mossyrock, took part in the event two years ago and returned Saturday to help with registration and other ground-level aspects of the experience.
Bowers used his free EAA membership in 2017 to take online classes and take a free flight lesson where, unlike during the initial Young Eagles flights, he held the controls. He said that if a spot opened up Saturday afternoon, he would gladly take a ride with first-time fliers.
“There’s something just about being in the air and looking down on the places you know,” Bowers said. “It’s just so amazing to be flying out and then the feeling of having the controls, that’s something I dreamed about when I was little.”
New to the Young Eagles festivities this year was a pre-flight ground school where registered participants could learn basic information about the instruments and gauges they would see inside the cockpit. A new scheduling matrix allowed families to know how long their kids would need to wait before their spot would open up, instead of queuing in long lines reminiscent of crowded amusement parks.
Food trucks, displays by aviation organizations from around the region and one by the Chehalis Fire Department gave the kids and their families plenty to do as they waited for their chance to take to the skies.
“We of course had a huge run of people at the beginning of the day, but it was steady from there all day long,” Rakes said. “It allowed us to pace the day, which was really nice. There were a lot of first-time people flying, but it was also special to see some returning kids, as well. Every flight is special in its own way, because it means something different to each one, but to see all the kids get to experience aviation like that was pretty neat.”
