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High school students are flying high at Michigan Tech this week, and Kaleigh Miller from Lake Linden couldn’t be happier.
“I am so ecstatic,” said Kaleigh Miller. “I’ve wanted to fly forever and even though I haven’t even started, I know I’m going to love it.”
As part of a Summer Youth Program, the students learned about general aviation, aerodynamics and how to achieve a private pilot license from pilots themselves, like Civil Air Patrol Public Affairs Officer Kevin Cadeau.
“This class is conducted by Civil Air Patrol and Experimental Aviation Association members. We volunteer our time and teach this class just from the passion we have about flying. We want to share it with others,” said Cadeau. “Most of them don’t have any knowledge of it. Most of them haven’t even driven a car yet and today, they’re going to get to fly an aircraft under our supervision.”
Before stepping into the cockpit, the teens spent time using a computer-based flight simulator. The simulator taught them how to work controls, use aeronautical maps and, most importantly, how to take-off and land the aircraft.
At Houghton County Airport, their knowledge was put to the test in an actual airplane.
At the end of the day, Miller said she was glad to know more about aviation and the different career possibilities in the field.
“The information, although it might have seemed a little bit slow and maybe even boring at times, it’s really important and it’s all worth it to get to fly a plane and, you know, all of the information that I’m going to have from now on from learning about the planes. Now, I probably don’t realize just how much it’s going to help me in the future, especially if I want to be an aerospace engineer,” said Miller.
