Rogers stop 47 of Eagle program

By Jeff Della Rosa

Staff Writer

A pilot from Boise, Idaho, is flying like an eagle toward Rogers to give young people interested in flight a chance to see the world from above.

The pilot, Jared Aicher, will land his four-passenger Cessna 172 at the Rogers Municipal Airport on June 26.

Aicher, who is stopping in 48 states and the Caribbean, will be offering young people a chance to fly for free.

"We want to open their eyes to a different world," he said.

He has been landing in about three states each day for the Eagle Flight program.

The month-long program will make stop No. 47 in Rogers at 9 a.m. with weather permitting.

For each of the 58 stops, he will take three Young Eagles members to the skies.

The area Young Eagles program, which is backed by Experimental Aircraft Association, has given its members free flights at airports in Rogers, Fayetteville and Springdale each summer.

David Bowman, an area coordinator of the Young Eagles program, said he does not know who will fly with Aicher but will be choosing those who have expressed an interest in flight.

The Eagle Flight program kicked off May 28 in Idaho.

And from there, Aicher flew east and stopped in states such as Indiana and Ohio.

On June 1, Aicher landed in Ithaca, N.Y.

"It's just been fun jumping time zones," he said.

Only the stop in North Dakota has been canceled so far because of weather. But two flights in Biddeford, Maine, were delayed, according to his daily journal on the Web site for the Eagle Flight program, www.theeagleflight.org.

A pocket of high pressure that has been allowing for good flying conditions was following the path of the flight, he said.

He has been flying his airplane for about eight hours each day.

But upon reaching Florida, he will stop there for three days because of maintenance that he scheduled for after 100 hours of flight.

From Florida, he will leave the country and make stops in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico, he will fly members of an Indian tribe there.

"That may be their only chance to fly," he said.

His plane will land in Rogers after a trip to Jefferson City, Mo. The stop here is a good location geographically in his flight path, Bowman said.

The 10,513-mile flight will continue west to California and end in a circle back to Idaho.

Aicher will continue The Eagle Flight, a two-part program, next spring with a worldwide flight. It will be a solo flight.

For this year, four people are flying with Aicher. Part of his team is flying in another airplane beside his and creating a documentary of the flight.

Aicher is a senior at Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah, and majoring in aeronautical science.

Reporter Jeff Della Rosa can be contacted at jeffd@nwanews.com.