TRAVELERS’ CHECK : Program helps spark flight bug
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008
Frank Sperandeo does what he can to spark interest in general aviation one or two children at a time.
The Fayetteville man took Jacob Barnes, 15, and Tanner Barnes, 9, of Hindsville up in his Piper named Miss Pearl on a recent Sunday afternoon.
Sperandeo then took Tyler Mason, 15, and his brother, Taylor, 12, of Springdale on the same 10-minute flight.
Miss Pearl left from Fayetteville Executive Airport, Drake Field, and buzzed over Farmington, then Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville and returned to the airport.
Sperandeo, 73, is part of the nationwide Young Eagles program, an effort started in 1992 by the Experimental Aircraft Association. It’s meant to give children ages 8 to 17 their first taste of aviation. The children fly for free.
“I’m enthusiastic and passionate about this, and I think the kids see that,” Sperandeo said. “This is one program where they get hooked on aviation. I get a kick out of it. I like to give back.”
Miss Pearl is a gem, too, a restored single-engine Piper PA-22 / 20 that’s pearl white and dark red. Think of it as the nicest Porsche in the world — only it flies at 150 mph.
“I’ll do it again,” Tanner said after his flight.
“Do you ever think you want to learn to fly a plane ?” asked stepmother Lisa Barnes.
“No,” Tanner said.
Tanner’s sister, Whitley Barnes, 12, decided she didn’t want to fly with Sperandeo at all. Her brothers prodded her, but she didn’t budge.
“Some kids shy away,” Sperandeo said.
Michelle Kunes, the administrator of the Young Eagles program based in Oshkosh, Wis., said Sperandeo handled her perfectly by encouraging her to change her mind but not being forceful.
“Maybe next year she’ll feel better about it,” Kunes said. “You don’t push it, because you want it to be a positive experience.”
Sperandeo said he’s hooked children on aviation in the past. A girl who flew with Sperandeo in the early 1990 s is now a captain on an Airbus that jets from New York to Europe. Two others are attending the U. S. Air Force Academy, Sperandeo said.
Kunes said 42, 000 pilots have taken Young Eagles into the air since the program started. Those pilots have taken more than 1. 4 million children up on first flights, she said.
Some pilots have taken more than 1, 000 children up. Sperandeo had 108 before taking up the Barnes and Mason boys, Kunes said.
“We get this mindset that pilots are an exclusive group, and it’s not that way,” Kunes said. “It’s an awareness about your local airport in your neighborhood, and it’s a way to share this place with people.”
Their effort is important to small airports. The number of certified pilots has decreased since 1980, from a high of 827, 071 that year to 624, 007 last year, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
There’s more information about the Young Eagles program at www. youngeagles. org.
Sperandeo will do more, too. He likes e-mail: mspearl@cox. net.
“Every kid expresses joy in different ways,” Sperandeo said. “I like to see the amazement on their faces. They light up. It’s like Christmas joy.” Robert J. Smith’s column about people on the move in Northwest Arkansas appears each Monday. He can be reached at rsmith@arkansasonline. com.
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