This Morning: At Sky Harbor Airport

YaYa came home from school, way back at the beginning of the school year, excited about a special aviation program in her science class.  Through several grants and organizations, a special aviation curriculum has been integrated into the science classes of local sixth graders, and the top 15% of students (who have the opportunity to do lots and lots of extra credit) get to fly in an airplane that takes off from Sky Harbor Airport in March.  From the start, YaYa was determined to be in one of those planes.  You see, The Banana flew in a commercial plane to Texas.  Mr. SP flew on a trip with me when he was a baby, but she had not ever been in an airplane before.  Airplanes fly like birds, so there was an instant connection for her.  In fact, when she took the pretest at the beginning of the year, she remarked, “I just imagined that I was a bird and I got a lot of the answers right.”   Nevertheless, this girl worked incredibly hard, and learned so, so much about flying over the past few months:  she knows about runways, airports, the parts of planes and what each part does, the science behind flight, how the control panel of a plane works, flight control codes and language.  It is amazing.  Also, she built cardboard airplanes, futuristic airports, and completed all sorts of other projects.

It turns out that she earned a flight on a small plane.  In fact, because she tied for the top score (meaning she did SO much extra credit) she ended up winning an award also.  They were supposed to fly in the airplanes last Saturday, but because of some weather related issues, the date was postponed until today.

She and I headed down to sky harbor airport, which is a beautiful little airport for small aircraft on the sand peninsula between Lake Superior and the harbor.  Dr. Peds drove the other kid lets down in a separate car.  YaYa was worried that there would be no one else there with a family, but there ended up being lots of families there in the end, and everyone in our family was very excited about a close up look at the airport, the hangers, and all of the interesting planes.

After YaYa got her award, she and the other recipient were interviewed.  My favorite moment was when the woman conducting the interview asked them about the futuristic airport they built.  She wondered what kind of features they included.  The other girl talked about how she made a rotating airport that used solar energy.  YaYa mentioned how she included very squishy floors in her airport, so that while people were in line for security checks, they could sit down comfortably on the floor as they waited.  Because she won the special award, YaYa and the other winner got to go on the very first flight.  There were about 6 different planes, and every one of them was very, very different.  YaYa ended up riding in a fancy cirrus plane.  They asked her what kind of plane she wanted to be in, and she said she didn’t care as long as it went up in the air.  She has been waiting to fly all year.  The excitement was intense.

It was great because the rest of our family got to watch from a short, safe distance as they got ready to take off.  It’s pretty rare that you get to be outside next to planes that are getting ready to fly.

We loved watching the air traffic people up close and personal.  YaYa was sitting in the back behind the pilot.

Here they are taxiing to the runway. Her plane was supposed to have the smoothest ride.  YaYa said the inside was very luxurious.   They did a loop over the harbor and lake and then were back to land. We couldn’t quite see them take off and land because of the very large snowbank blocking our vision.  That’s life in Duluth right now:  everywhere you look a snowbank is blocking your vision.  

They exited. 

The pilot signed their paperwork so that they can do some more work and go to the first part of  ground school for free if they choose.  YaYa is totally about doing that. After they were escorted back to the safe viewing area, YaYa and the other award recipient were interviewed by the news.  YaYa was very happy to let the other girl wear the microphone;  so much attention was quite unnerving for her.  

There were more pictures taken by the Aviation Institute.

She was having such a good time, so after the other kids got a little antsy, Dr. Peds drove them home for lunch and she and I stayed to watch a couple of her friends get in their planes.

Let me take just a minute to tell you how excited Mr. TOF was about the airport.  He LOVED it so much! He was bouncing around telling everyone how excited he was about seeing all the planes and propellers, how they took off and landed.  He was pretending to be an airplane and zooming all around with his arms stuck out like wings.   We all had a really good time.  It was so fun to see all the different planes and how things worked.  Dr. Peds was outside with the other kid lets during the awards and briefing at the beginning, and he was talking to a couple of the pilots and learning all sorts of amazing things about the planes.   Mr. SP is determined to do well when he’s a sixth grader too.  It was such a great experience.

Here are a few of the planes that I thought were interesting:

One of the kids we know at church got to ride in this super fast, two seater.  It’s totally the plane I would have picked to ride in.

Some of the planes near the hanger were experiential aircraft that people were building themselves.  This is the skeleton of of a plane. 

This was YaYa’s favorite plane, which the pilot built himself.  It was super zippy. 

This beautiful older plane with a wood propeller was parked outside one of the hangers.  I loved it. 

I also loved this historic looking small metal plane. I’m not sure how old it is, but I thought it was super interesting.