An open letter to Tom Poberezny

"Peter Dohm" wrote

2) Young Eagles is just plain silly. I have been critical of the age
group definition from the start, and have stated in my local chapter that
the ages should be 16 through 25 instead of 8 through 17. Needless to
say,
that has not brought any agreement from my peers. However, my rationale
is
simply that 16 is the age at which medical certification can be issued,
and
therefore 16 is the age at which one can solo. Actually, there are
probably
some credible arguments for 15 or 18 as well; but the point is that most
of
the 8 through 12 year olds will find plenty of other interests before they
can return for flight instruction and a single short flight will not
remain
that memorable for that long.

BTW, I realize that Flying Start is supposed to exist for the ages of 18
and
over; but I really think that the Young Eagles format would have more long
term success in the older age gorups.

Aviation Explorers has a much better chance of growing new pilots, and has,
in the unit I formerly participated in. I know of at least two of the
young'uns that I used to camp with, that now are pilots, and I think there
are a few more in various stages of lessons.

Aviation Explorers, for those that I have not converted g, is a part of
"Learning for Life," which is a loose part of Boy Scouts, without the
uniforms.

They are the ones that push the planes in homebuilt show planes area and
Area 51 at OSH, and those over 18 also take a hand in flagging in traffic on
four of the seven or eight major taxiway intersections off of 18/36 at OSH
during the last weeks of July.

We NEED more of these units started. Can you help in making that happen?
It really is not all that difficult to do!

http://www.sportys-catalogs.com/ltf/...exploring.html
http://www.learning-for-life.org/exp...tion/main.html
http://www.aviationexploring.org/news/index.html
Bradley Bormuth (in link above) won top pilot honors, from the unit I was
active in.

--
Jim in NC