Challenge Air

Today I participated in one of the Challenge Air events in Everett, WA. (KPAE). Challenge air holds these events around the US, and they are held to give kids with special needs an opportunity to fly in an airplane. Along with 20+ other pilots, we were tasked to fly a child and family members on a short 15-20 minute flight. This was the third annual event and was held at the Castle and Cook hangar. There were 135 kids signed up for flights along with 100's of volunteers helping things go smoothly. The challenge Air folks setup all kinds of activities for the children as well as assigning each child to an airplane. The kids got to take a short ground school and then were given a boarding pass and after pilot/ground crew introductions, they and their family got to walk out on the tarmac via a red carpet and through a cheering crowd to their assigned airplane. At the completion of each flight, I got to sign a certificate commemorating their flight and pin a set of wings on each "pilot".

I flew 5 flights for the day and all of my passengers were flying for the first time. I let each one operate the controls at various points of the flight and the looks on their faces were priceless. It was interesting seeing each child's personality come out when they operated the flight controls, where control inputs ranged from hesitant (shy/timid) to almost full control deflection (kids with lots of energy). All of the families were so gracious and appreciative of everyone involved and I could tell that these flights meant so much to them and their children.

I think that just for a short time while the children and parents are flying above the Earth looking at the world go by from 2500', that these flights give the parents and the kids a brief diversion from all of the issues that come along with caring for a special needs child.