The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
HANDS-ON LEARNING
In partnership with T&G Flying Club, high school aviation program allows students to get hands-on experience
Two Richmond Heights high schoolers were able to get their first taste of what a career as a pilot might be like this week.
Jamari Peterson, 18, and Diamond McClendon, 16, took a “discovery flight” out of Cuyahoga County Airport with a licensed pilot instructor aboard a small plane on May 13.
Each had an opportunity to take the airplane’s controls as they traveled to Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport. With the help of their flight instructor, who also had access to the controls, Peterson flew to Burke, where the plane landed so the students could switch, and Diamond flew back to Cuyahoga.
For Diamond, the experience was certainly a special one, as she had never flown in a plane before — let alone piloted one.
“I was nervous at first, so I didn’t fly first, Jamari did, so that I was able to get the feel of the plane with all the bumps and everything,” Diamond said, “It was fun flying the
“I was nervous at first, so I didn’t fly first, Jamari did, so that I was able to get the feel of the plane with all the bumps and everything. It was fun flying the plane — with the instructor, obviously.” — Diamond McClendon
plane — with the instructor, obviously.”
“Some stuff was challenging,” she added, “But the instructor was always there, and he got me through everything.”
Peterson, who aims to become a pilot for his career, said getting behind the controls of the plane for the first time was a big motivator toward his goals.
“It was definitely a wonderful experience, I would definitely do it again,” he said, “I’d just like to thank Richmond Heights for giving us this opportunity to do something like this, it was really good.”
The two were joined by Superintendent Renee Willis and high school principal Marnisha Brown, who also both completed their own flying lesson. Both Peterson and Diamond were able to log a half hour of flight time toward acquiring their private pilot licenses.
Willis explained that the district’s aviation program, which is open to both middle and high school students, has been steadily growing over the past several years.
The district recently acquired flight simulators, which Peterson and Diamond trained on prior to their actual flights in the new secondary school’s aviation classroom.
For the discovery flights themselves, the program partnered with T&G Flying Club, a long-running flying club that has trained thousands of pilots, to help students get more
hands-on experience.
“This just allows students the opportunity to experience something
that they traditionally would not have been able to,” Willis said, “I always say, you can only be what you see...So to have these students here at this airport, watching as we see people come and go, they are now seeing what could possibly be a dream for them.”
Willis explained that her goal was to see her district’s program eventually create a “hub for aviation” in this area of Ohio, since there are currently no aviation-focused high schools near Richmond Heights.
Four more students, including some middle schoolers, would be following the lead of Peterson, Diamond and the administrators by taking their own discovery flight lessons on May 14.