AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958 - (Page 64)

Incidentally, by this time they UWbered quite & few. Jogged along by the results being obtained at school and the activities at the slowly developing airport, adult interest in aviation had grown considerably." Among the interested listeners at that meeting was Don C. M c U n (AOPA $6858), a former Crescent City High School student While the problem was being outlined, a simple solution came to him. "You can use my nÃ§ Piper SMpw Cu6,'9McMillan suddenly announced to the gathering, "until the school district can afford to buy its own? McMillanYs only raquirements Â¥wer that the plane be maintained in good condition and that it be available w e hn he needed it. Clausen was certified as a flight instructor by the State Department of Education and the aviation class took to the air officially during the 1863-64 school term. Operational expenses were handled by charging $5 KB hour far flight instruction. Addtag the use. of a real airplane to the coarse of instruction served as a great sUinaIus to the program. More students enrolled. Girls became intereeted, too. In 1957 Marie Stewart was selected as the most outstanding aviation student of her class, $he received the Don Clamsen Aviation Award as a result. Man* was the first girl to solo and qualify for a pilot license through the school flight program. After the MvMillan %per Cul> had been used for two yÃ§ftrs the school board decided it could afford to own an airplane. A Piper Tvi-Pacer was purchased. Jerry Anderson (AOPA 111671), the school's certified and licensed flight matruetor, thinks that the TM-Pacer i s an ideal plane for school aae. Two students may sit in the back seat and observe while the instructor i s giving flying lessons to another student in the front seat Clausen, who helped start the whole thing, continues to help keep it rolling, When school authorities decided they wanted a new plane every year, in order to minimize flying risks, he agreed to furnish the district with s, new Piper plane every 12 months a t cost CIausen is the local Piper dealer. Teaming up with Anderson is Ardy Sveurn, a licensed pilot and accredited teacher, who directs the growid WOOL Daring the 1966-57 school term he bad 60 students enrolled in his two classes. A Link trainer recen.tly was added to Sveum's equipment. Flying is optional with the students, but it has been determined that once a boy starts the courses he usually takes two yeam of flying instruction. The rules require that a student must be 16 years old before he c a n solo, When he i 17 he i eligible for a privste s s license. Seniors are allowed to continue i the school program during the first n summer after their graduation. Faculty members also are encouraged to study aviation. "H a faculty xoiexober feels that flying will assist him in his work with the students in subjecta related to aviation -such as mathematics, physics and languages-we encourage him to learn to fly," Tinmen said. (Languages enter the picture because students are eneouraged to think about flying their own planes to other lands.) Every effort is made to keep the cost ' <(Â flying at a minimum. The prospective pilots pay $2.60 an hour for gasoline while receiving Bight instruction. Even this amount would appear to be a deterrent to flying by youths-for almost everyone knows high school stadents sometimes have difficulty in raising $2.6&Ã‘bu Crescent City took steps to handle this problem as it had the others faced during the development of the aviation courae. Clausen canvassed local merchants and asked them to give preferential hiring status to high school students who were learning to fly and needed money to cay for flight instruction. The effect this high school aviation program has had on the people of Crescent City i slightly less than phes nomenal, Fathers began to see aviation thr~ughthe eyes of their enthusiastic sons* They saw the advantages flying gave their sons when they were ready for military service; they saw aviation offering their offspring careers as commercial pilots, A and E mechanics, air traffic controllers, and in many related professions. So the fathers, m many instances, took up flying, too. Many of them are business men; the found that flying their own planes hod dintmet business possibilities. Executive of larger busineases i Del Norte county, n particularly in the lumbering industry, MITCHELL AUTOPILOT is approved in more business air- also felt the enthusiasm generated at Crescent C t Union High School and iy at the Del Norte Airport. L r e planes agr were bought and pilots lured to fly them. All of this interest brought with ft the realization that a good airport was e necessity for the community, and many &and6pitched i to help along the n project started by Don Clausen. Old runways were replaced with amoofibsurfaced strips; an attractive terminal building was erected; an Airways Traf0c Control Station and omnirange m e established by the GAA and many individual hangars were built to house the private planes. Aside from all of the commercial advantages accruing to Crescent City, there i s hardly a resident who does not take wide in the fact that aviation has become an important segment of their conmunitfa life. They expect great things from the fledgling flyers up at Union High. Don Clausen, Charles Tbunen, Jerry Johnson, Ardy Sveum and the away others who played a part i bringing n the unique program into existence, and m a g a success of it, are willing to bet that their young men and women with wings will deliver. END THE AOPA PILOT craft than any other low cost three directional control auto- pilot. Price: $2425.00. CESSNA * APACHE * BONANZAS NAVION TWIN NAVIONS * MITCHELL 1- ._ S T ~ INC. U , P. 0. Box 17 Mineral Wells, Texas

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958
Contents
Calendar
Legally Speaking
Editorial
What About Airspace Use, Mr. Pyle?
10,000 Seconds Under the Hood
Flying Weather One Month Ahead
AOPA Weathercast
AOPA 185579
Air-Age Teenagers Give City a Lift
Your Radio and You
Operation Cost Cut
Put Your Fabric to the Test
Are You "Compasss Punchy?
Yankee Duster in Latin America
South American Challenge
I Lived Through a Graveyard Spiral
Safety Corner and Accident Report
On the Airways
Travel
What's New?
Classified Department

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958

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