News : Young Eagles take flight from Vinton's Municipal Airport

EAA Young Eagles had a chance to share their love of flying with children on Saturday at the Airport

The EAA Young Eagles event held on Saturday at the airport."Young Eagles is a program through the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) through which kids ages 8-17 are given free rides in aircraft our own aircraft to introduce them to general aviation and flying. Since 1993 EAA has flown over 2 million kids worldwide. June 8th also happened to be International Young Eagles Day so this was one of countless Young Eagle rally's around the world," said Justin Cook, President of EAA Chapter 33.

Cook also said that the only other rule other than age requirements, was to have fun.

Keith Williams greeted the young flyers, and welcomed them to their first experience in the air. Many of the children at the airport had never ridden in a plane before and for them it would be their first flights.

Charles Anderson had just one request, he didn't want to fly with anyone else, he wanted to be the only passenger

Nate and Ashley Hesson had their children, Lily and Noah at the airport on Saturday as well. Lily lit up as she talked about the call letters on the plane. "They can't hide!" she said as she showed me her booklet. "If I know the numbers on the plane, I can look them up on the internet and find out where they are!" she explained. I have a feeling this little gal will be tracking her plane even after the event.

Violet Jackson also had a chance to choose which plane to fly in and chose to fly with Scott Peterson. (Mom suspected that she chose that plane because of the stars on the side) Scott is a veteran pilot with over 20 years of flying experience and flew in from Tipton just to be at the event.

The Young Eagles is an annual event and is promoted by area pilots who want to share their love of flying with children.

Watch for the event next year if you missed out on the fun for this season.