HOLLAND, Mich. — A West Michigan non-profit has been getting middle and high school students excited about aviation through their teaching and hands-on aircraft simulators.
“I had a lot of fun doing that because I like simulation stuff and I love video games,” event attendee Henry said.
Flight Path in Holland, an all-volunteer organization, welcomed nine students along with their parents to their Flight Night event this week.
They learned about aviation history, toured the airport hangar and got to fly themselves through a flight simulator. President and board member Jeff Vos says the program started when they noticed the need for pilots.
“In 2019, we, as an enthusiastic group of pilots realized that there's going to be a shortage of pilots in the near future and we all wanted to give back to aviation what others have given to us, so we on our own bought a flight simulator and slowly developed this program to start teaching kids about how airplanes fly,” Vos said.
Henry attended the flight night event with his father and after his experience flying at 35,000 feet in the aircraft simulator, he’s excited to one day fly a plane with passengers himself.
“I’m just super excited about this whole thing because this made me realize how much more fun it would be to just be able to be in control of a jet this big just be behind that yoke and be able to like fly people all over the place,” Henry said.
It’s the students’ enthusiasm and excitement that motivates the organization to continue its work.
“We're just happy for all the volunteers that come here and we're happy to see all the kids learn something about aviation. We’ve had many kids, I don't know how many get into careers in aviation, but we do have a board where we keep track of the ones that we know about. It's really exciting to see them advance their careers in aviation,” Vos said.
After seeing all the fun the students were having, I couldn’t say no when they asked me to test the simulator out myself. I safely landed the plane and even earned my own certification and keychain. It was an experience any student interested in aviation should experience.
The organization is able to make their program free for students because of donations they receive. If you’d like to participate in the free program, make a donation or sign up to volunteer, click here.
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