President’s Corner

“What is Eagle Flights?”

EAA Eagle Flights is a fairly new program from the EAA headquarters that provides an exciting opportunity for our membership. We are underway reviewing the program and considering making it part of our chapter’s future membership program.

Eagle Flights is a pilot mentoring program that is very different from Young Eagles. Eagle Flights is for adults eighteen years and older and is intended to be a one-on-one flight experience. The following is from the EAA web site describing what Eagle Flights is.

“The Eagle Flights program is about sharing a hands-on flight experience with an adult who has already expressed an interest in aviation. It is not a program for adults to simply get an airplane ride during a Young Eagles rally. Eagle Flights gives you the resources and organizational support to share the fun of flying with friends, family members, and co-workers – something many of our members already do. EAA chapters should view this program as an opportunity to invite new participants into their local aviation community.”

In my recent conversations with fellow club members and a few CFI’s, there is a significant number of adults that would like to learn to fly but don’t know where to begin. They have not even had the opportunity to fly in a small aircraft or the fun of experiencing a flight to a nearby airport for lunch etc.

This EAA program is perfect to accommodate an individual’s initial curiosity and not overwhelm the general membership with scheduling a special “all hands on deck” program like a Young Eagles day.

Here is more information from EAA’s web site regarding Eagle Flights and what Eagle Flights participants receive:

“Eagle Flights participants will receive a free, six-month EAA membership after the completed Eagle Flights registration form is received by the Eagle Flights Office. We are currently working with several aviation companies to develop additional flight training resources and benefits that will help Eagles along their path to joining our community of aviators.”

There will be more information to share at upcoming meetings but in the meantime this is a good time to bring a friend to a meeting that has an interest in learning to fly and introduce the opportunity to participate in “Eagle Flight.”