This is the old geezer pilot, retired high school teacher, again.
Although I cannot name names or, even, a location, I have a good and true story to tell about teenage boys and airplanes.
Back in 1986, in a New Mexico high school, I had boys, ages 15 and up. They were ready for the firing squad, so to speak. All of them were thought to be emotionally disturbed. They were placed with me, every minute of every school day, until they either graduated, quit, moved, or died.
I had a condemned auto mechanics/auto body shop/ sheet metal/ small engine shop, far removed from the rest of the high school, in which to teach these guys.
For the next two school years, we built a Thorp T - 18 from scratch, using money they and I made from fixing/painting cars, etc. The entire project was done secretely. Fortunately, the principal didn't give a **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** about any of us, so we never had to worry about him coming way out to our shop. He was more interested in hanging around the office trying to get his secretary to go to bed with him. Suited us just fine.
In April of 87, we took that airplane, in pieces, to a private airport out in the desert nearby, put it together, and, each and every one of those boys got to fly in her.
That May, the boys and I had a final wilderness trip in the mountains nearby. One night, while sitting around a campfire, they told me they'd decided to present the airplane to me as a gift. They figured if one of them got it, they'd just tear it up. They didn't have the heart to sell it. I cried.
I still have the Thorp. Two of those guys are now F - 16 pilots. Seven are civilian pilots. One is a lawyer. One is a school principal. Two went on to teach emotionally disturbed teenagers themselves. Another builds custom cars and street rods in his, by appointment only, custom body shop. Last year, he made more money than I've made in my entie life. All of them are leading useful and productive lives.
Had that idiotic principal known we'd built and flown an airplane, he'd of had a bowel movement of significant proportions.
To this day, he doesn't know about it. Neither the boys nor their parents ever told a soul.
Yep, I believe in airplanes and kids.
Think of the young men whose minds and souls were not wasted because of an airplane.
Although I cannot name names or, even, a location, I have a good and true story to tell about teenage boys and airplanes.
Back in 1986, in a New Mexico high school, I had boys, ages 15 and up. They were ready for the firing squad, so to speak. All of them were thought to be emotionally disturbed. They were placed with me, every minute of every school day, until they either graduated, quit, moved, or died.
I had a condemned auto mechanics/auto body shop/ sheet metal/ small engine shop, far removed from the rest of the high school, in which to teach these guys.
For the next two school years, we built a Thorp T - 18 from scratch, using money they and I made from fixing/painting cars, etc. The entire project was done secretely. Fortunately, the principal didn't give a **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** about any of us, so we never had to worry about him coming way out to our shop. He was more interested in hanging around the office trying to get his secretary to go to bed with him. Suited us just fine.
In April of 87, we took that airplane, in pieces, to a private airport out in the desert nearby, put it together, and, each and every one of those boys got to fly in her.
That May, the boys and I had a final wilderness trip in the mountains nearby. One night, while sitting around a campfire, they told me they'd decided to present the airplane to me as a gift. They figured if one of them got it, they'd just tear it up. They didn't have the heart to sell it. I cried.
I still have the Thorp. Two of those guys are now F - 16 pilots. Seven are civilian pilots. One is a lawyer. One is a school principal. Two went on to teach emotionally disturbed teenagers themselves. Another builds custom cars and street rods in his, by appointment only, custom body shop. Last year, he made more money than I've made in my entie life. All of them are leading useful and productive lives.
Had that idiotic principal known we'd built and flown an airplane, he'd of had a bowel movement of significant proportions.
To this day, he doesn't know about it. Neither the boys nor their parents ever told a soul.
Yep, I believe in airplanes and kids.
Think of the young men whose minds and souls were not wasted because of an airplane.
