Five Reasons Aviation Camp is Good for a Child or Young Person

1) It's fun.

If your child gets a flight in a small aircraft as part of the camp, that's really great. Even if the child has been in an airliner before, the view from a small plane is fascinatingly different. A flight instructor told me of a youngster who complained about "all the smoke" in the air during a flight on an overcast day. "That's a cloud," the instructor explained. "Oooh...cool!" the now favorably impressed camper responded.

If your child is prone to motion sickness in cars, he or she may experience motion sickness in the air, too. But for most children, a brief flight is enjoyable.

And think of this: What do you imagine the wealthiest humans in the world 110 or more years ago would have been willing to pay for an hour or less of flight in one of today's small, powered aircraft ? Probably more than the millions that some "space tourists" pay today to hitch a ride aboard a Russian spacecraft. But your child can sample flight for far, far less than that and enjoy some time in a camp setting with other children, as well.

2) There's a lot of interesting history in aviation, which means there are a lot of good stories. You're never too young to enjoy a good story.

Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 lasted 33 hours and 30 minutes from takeoff to touchdown. It captured the imagination of the world then, and it's still an amazing story of physical endurance and well-planned navigation. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic five years later, and she remains an icon of female perseverance and daring.

James "Jimmy" Doolittle received one of the first doctoral degrees ever awarded in aeronautics in the 1920s; he then used his skills and knowledge to develop instruments that made it possible to fly long distances in the clouds and land safely at a destination airport in bad weather. Later, during World War II, he led a bold U.S. air raid on Tokyo, Japan.

Black aviators known as the "Tuskegee Airmen" and women pilots in units such as the Women's Army Service Pilots (WASPs) proudly served the United States during World War II.

Charles "Chuck" Yeager broke two ribs in a fall from a horse a couple of days before he broke the sound barrier in a jet aircraft in 1947.

Pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew a specially designed aircraft around the world, nonstop and without refueling, in 1986.

More recently, Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger III safely landed a US Airways Airbus on the Hudson River in January of 2009 after an encounter with a flock of birds on takeoff that shut down both of the aircraft's engines. See "US Airways Flight 1549 Lands Safely in Hudson River; Bird Strike Likely,"
These and other stories are entertaining at the least, and may inspire in children a greater interest in all kinds of history.

3) There are a lot of diverse career opportunities available in aviation-related fields.

You don't have to be a pilot to enter an aviation-related career. Air traffic controllers, flight service station specialists, airport managers and inspectors, flight dispatchers, air freight company employees, flight attendants, airport security personnel and many others are needed in the aviation industry.

Specialized mechanics are needed to service and repair aircraft. Airport workers are needed to fuel aircraft, provide concession services and maintain the airport grounds. Engineers are needed to design airplanes, and workers are needed to manufacture airplanes. Travel agents as well as ticket agents are part of the aviation industry. Meteorologists prepare special aviation forecasts and reports. Cartographers create aviation charts.

And for those who are interested in piloting, there are choices between airlines and corporate flying, cargo hauling, crop dusting, traffic reporting, flight instructing, and more. Military as well as civilian pilots are needed, and even a few astronauts!

4) Flight training may make your child or young person a safer driver.

If a camp inspires your child to pursue flight lessons and you can find a way to afford it (yes, there are scholarships available from some schools and organizations), it just might make him or her a better driver in an automobile. For one thing, an alcohol or drug-related driving conviction could have an adverse effect on one's pilot certificate, and this is a powerful incentive not to abuse drugs or alcohol. For another, pilots are encouraged to learn and practice decision-making skills that are perhaps more detailed than those used by the average driver, and this may help in the avoidance of accidents. See "To Be a Better Driver, Modify Hazardous Attitudes."

5) Learning about aviation gives a child or young person a new perspective on weather, physics, geography and the world.

If you think about the difference between airspeed and groundspeed in an airplane, for example, you begin to understand that you need to have something to measure your speed against to make it meaningful. You have to consider it in relation to something else---such as your location above the surface of the earth, or the speed of sound.

Similarly, you might not usually care if the velocity of the wind is 10 knots at the surface and 40 knots at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the surface. It matters to you if you plan to fly an airplane that day, however. And one reason for a change in wind speed and direction at lower altitudes is the kind of terrain over which the wind is blowing.

A Federal Aviation Administration Web site, http://www.faa.gov/education/student_resources/ace_camps/ , lists some of the aviation camps located around the country; others may be found by contacting your state aviation department or local colleges and universities that offer flight programs.

Sources:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/index2.cfm

http://www.faa.gov/education/educator_resources/

http://www.faa.gov/

The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles Lindbergh (1953)

Yeager by General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos (1985)