Even before Nathan McCormack flew in a Cirrus SR22 aircraft during the Young Eagles event the Experimental Aircraft Association branch in Cottonwood hosted on Saturday, Oct. 25, he knew he wanted to fly.
“His brother flies in the Air Force,” McCormack’s dad, Mike, said. “His brother flies Pave Hawks, helicopters, and before that, C-17s.” He comes from a long line of U.S. Air Force pilots.
“His grandfather flew. I flew. His brother flies,” Mike McCormack said. “So we’re all Air Force.”
“I really want to fly the F-22,” Nathan said. “If there’s any future planes in the military — because I want to be in the Air Force.”
Before the flight, every pilot took their passenger through a pre-flight checklist around the airplane to make sure everything was safe and show how the airplane worked.
On Oct. 25, Nathan flew from the Cottonwood Municipal Airport south and over Cornville, and made a large loop back around to the airport he took off from. It lasted about 30 minutes.
“My favorite part about today was learning … a bit about the airplane’s controls,” he said. “Also learning about how the airplane works, and different things that the pilot has to do with the airplane.”
The event happens twice a year, once in the fall and in the spring. The next one will be in April.
Several volunteer take up the participants in a variety of airplanes, from Cessna 172s, which are common trainer airplanes, to old Chinese airplanes that could leave a trail of smoke on command.
Alec Herman, a commercial pilot who works fueling and maintaining airplanes out of the Sedona Airport, said he expected to take up about four or five children.
“This is probably my sixth [Young Eagles event],” he said. He’s currently working toward his instructor pilot’s license so he can start teaching.
In his years of participating in the event, Herman said he’s probably given about 30 or 40 Young Eagles flights.
His favorite part is “just the smiles,” Herman said. “Everyone seems happy. It’s just a … good little event for the kids.”
The EAA holds monthly meetings where they discuss safety and education surrounding aviation. Cottonwood’s branch is Chapter 952.
“My flight instructor two years ago told me about them, so I came and checked it out and came to a couple of their chapter meetings, and then joined the chapter,” said Verde Valley School senior Matreiya Viafora, 17. “Then they gave me the Ray Aviation Scholarship to fund my flight training.”
Viafora said the scholarship amounted to $11,000.
“There’s an organization called the 99s, female pilots, and they support her as well,” EAA member Mike Looney said.
She volunteered for the event, not to fly children — she expects to test for her private pilot’s license in the coming months — but just to help check people in and make everything go smoothly. Normally, she flies out of Sedona and usually flies Piper Cherokees.
Liam Friederici, a friend who used to go to high school with Viafora, said he got his private pilot’s license earlier this year and is working on his instrument rating in Prescott. Friederici is based out of Flagstaff, currently a sophomore at Northern Arizona University, and recently joined the EAA chapter in Cottonwood.
“I’ve been to one chapter meeting so far, and this is the first event I volunteered at pretty much here,” he said, “I’m excited to be here. It’s good to hang out with a bunch of aviation people because there’s not very many.”
The EAA Chapter is fairly active year-round. While it puts on this kind of event twice a year, it has many more goals as well.
“Besides flying kids, we build, maintain and restore airplanes,” member Kenneth Evans said. “So that blue airplane; that’s a Chinese trainer. … It’s what we call a war bird. And then we have folks that have airplanes to go back to the ’20s up to the ’60s. They’re what we call antiques.”
While there are EAA chapters across the nation, and many are Arizona as well, many of them are focused more, or are based out of airports that are focused more, on training or other aspects of aviation.
“We’re usually the most active” in the Young Eagles event, Evans said. “One reason we’ve been told — I haven’t chatted with anybody directly — but down in Phoenix, there’s so much flight training. You know, there’s an Embry Riddle-like [center everywhere], you’ve got Chandler, Scottsdale, Deer Valley, Goodyear, they all have pilot training, and they just can’t. Our sister chapter in Prescott really can’t because they’re so busy.”
People completely new to aviation are always welcome.
“I kind of started [looking into aviation] this month,” Dominic Skoczynski, 13, said after his flight. “I really saw that aviation and overall … it’s really awesome, really interesting. And I’ve kind of gone on since, and I liked it.” He said the sights were his favorite part of the flight.
“I expected to see Sedona, and exceeded my expectations … all the way out to Sedona,” he said. “But we also got to see Mingus Mountain and the highway, and then we came back.”
He said he wants to continue with aviation and at least get a private pilots license.
