Flying with the greatest of ease
From left, Andrew Spilman, a North Valleys High School freshman, Rob Stone, flight instructor and a former Air Force pilot, and North Valleys students Shyanna Kahookele and Doug Thomas pose for a photo on May 10. The students are part of North Valleys’ Air Force Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, and have received flight instruction on glider planes, like the one landing above.
Flying 9,000 feet in the air is a breeze for 14-year-old Andrew Spilman.
“It’s like nothing else,” said Spilman, as he tried to describe the thrill of flying. “You feel like there is no limitation.”
Spilman, a member of the North Valleys High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, received his wings on May 13 for completing his first solo fight. He also received an $800 Federal Aviation Administration scholarship to continue his solo training.
Through Air Sailing Incorporated and the Nevada Soaring Association, North Valleys JROTC students have had the chance to put their aviation knowledge into practice.
Since 2003, the organizations have helped train and fly more than 300 North Valleys Air Force JROTC students in glider planes for 10 months of the year.
Spilman said he credits his aerial accomplishments to the soaring association’s volunteers. Besides training him, they also have given him rides from home or school to weekend training sessions at the Air Sailing Incorporated gliderport in Palomino Valley, 25 miles northeast of Reno.
Why go through so much trouble?
“To give back what we love so much,” said Bob Spielman, secretary/treasurer of the Nevada Soaring Association and former Air Force, Nevada Air National Guard and commercial airline pilot.
Although training the students is a passion, flying is serious business, said Rob Stone, president of NSA and a former Air Force pilot.
“This is not a joy ride,” Stone said. “It’s a ride to orient them into aviation.”
Because of the risks involved, retired Air Force Lt. Col. George Fleck said all students who receive flight instruction must demonstrate responsibility and maturity. Fleck is the senior instructor for North Valleys’ JROTC program.
Shyanna Kahookele, 15, is among the other North Valleys students who received time in the skies with one of the instructors. Fleck said Kahookele proves that size doesn’t matter in aviation, only skill.
“It feels great,” said Kahookele, who weighs 103 pounds and is 4 feet 11 inches tall. “The feeling that you get is just butterflies in your tummy, and you get excited.”
This article appeared originally in Reno Gazette-Journal.
