Kids plus Aircraft plus Non-profit typically equals “ride factory.” The most familiar example of this is EAA Young Eagles. Kids line up and are packed into aircraft as efficiently as possible and lofted up with some 100LL. Maybe it will be a wonderful 10-minute memory or perhaps the smarter children will say “JetBlue was so much better!”
Some local aviation enthusiasts take a different approach with Above the Clouds. They pick some children and teens who could use a literal boost. Each child is welcomed by a big crowd, offered a delicious breakfast, and then escorted with a parent or other adult to an aircraft. The pilot meets and talks to the young person and they agree on a route to be flown, driven substantially by the child’s interests. After the flight, there is a gift bag with items picked to match the child’s passions and also a flight jacket.
I did one of these earlier this summer with a Robinson R44 from East Coast Aero Club:
After the flight:
It would be nice to see this kind of approach taken in more places. Maybe it would even warm up the hearts of the aircraft-haters in Santa Monica!
Related:
Their instagram photo is not as easy on the eyes as the blog, but probably more realistic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0j0YHQAzxe/
It would be an interesting experiment to revisit theses kids every year (for the next decade?) and measure what results these flights had on their lives, then adjust the program accordingly.
Sorry we do this in Santa Monica already and the local communists still hate us.
Are they communists or just more basic government crooks who want to profit off the sale and development of the land?
Colin! They are probably both!!
You give money to all the wrong people, Sam!
As was explained by a presidential candidate and a fellow New Yorker, there’s plenty of money in this country, it’s just in the wrong hands: https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/de-blasio-theres-plenty-money-country-its-just-wrong-hands
Who’s the cutie pie in the second pic?