11-Year-Old Boy's Dreams Take Flight With Pilot Training

By Debbie Swartz, Pressconnects.com

Eleven-year-old Louis Alcantara is too young to drive a car but he knows how to fly a plane. He is a member of the Young Eagles Program and has been taking flight lessons each week at Tri-Cities Airport's Aeromation school since last summer. "I like takeoffs and landings and plain old flying around are my favorite parts," Louis said. His aunt bought him a flight simulator before he began his lessons, which prepared him well for learning procedures. His instructor says he is very safety-conscious and motivated, and only gets nervous during the trickier mid-flight maneuvers. "The more he flies, the more confident he becomes," his mother says.

December 9, 2009