This isn't an every-day solo. Joshua is three. His mighty Stearman, training aircraft to a generation of World War II pilots, is just a little bigger than the tricycle he rides at home. But for this little pilot, the steaming-hot ramp at Kansas City's Richards-Gebauer Airport is worlds away.
Joshua is one of a flock of future fliers to ride the peddle-cart planes flown by Stepping Stones to Aviation, a Huntsville, Alabama-based company that hopes to spark the fire of aviation in pre-school and elementary-age children. Stepping Stones is invited to air shows around the country to bring its barnstorming road show to the next generation's pilots.
"The seeds for becoming a pilot are sown young," says Stepping Stones founder Jim Dziubanik, who watches his students and airplanes scurry around the tarmac. If only every flight school could be so busy.
The traveling road show, on display at the Kansas City Air Show, is an introductory flight of sorts. Here, the kids pilot their own airplane after a quick preflight briefing from Jim.
"Okay, stay on the white line around the traffic pattern," he says. "Don't run into any of the parked airplanes. Your grownup needs to walk with you the whole way. Land Runway 36. Taxi back to the ramp when you're done. How many times have you ridden today, anyway?"
Air shows are the United States' second most popular spectator sport (auto racing is first), and people love airplanes, Jim says. Here, and at the other air shows Jim and his family frequent during the summer, aviation is turned into a learning platform. "I want the kids to remember the air show for months after they go home."
Jim's not just thinking about the children.
The father of one of the kids peddling across the ramp says he's always wanted to learn to fly.
"It's not as expensive as you think," Jim tells him. "Let me ask you this - do you drink beer or smoke cigarettes? Cut back on those and fly instead. If you really want to do it, there's a way to do it." The man says he'll think about it. Maybe he'll take an introductory flight, he says.
"I want to let them know that you don't have to be a millionaire to be a pilot," Jim says later. "Everyone can do it."
Well, just about everyone. Jim's medical history prevents him from obtaining a medical certificate. He enjoys flying, but instead spends his time spreading the gospel of aviation. He's passed his love of flying along to his two kids, though. (His youngest son, who guides guests through Stepping Stones' office and answers questions with the precision of a military pilot, will make a great pilot when he's old enough, Jim says.)
At Stepping Stones' home aerodrome, across Interstate 565 from Huntsville International Airport, visiting school kids get a longer program, akin to a ground school. Cars and buses park at the threshold lights to Stepping Stones Runway 9 - boxy lines and stripes that have been painted onto the asphalt. Other lines mark traffic patterns ("Pilot, make left closed traffic"), taxiways, and the ramp. Students take a short "rules of the air" class and take a test. When they pass, they get a pedal pilot certificate, which allows the kids to come to the "airport" and fly with their parents. Before each engine start and takeoff, they must "clear prop" and ask for permission to taxi.
Some of the teachers tell Jim he's trying to teach the kids too much - rules, the phonetic alphabet, correct map headings, weight and balance, fuel, customs, getting a weather briefing, procedures for making the flight. Let the kids have fun, they say.
Sure, Jim says, it should be fun, but he wants the kids to come away having learned something about how airplanes work. As for being too information-heavy, he disagrees. Part of the point, he says, is to teach the kids discipline and rules - being a pilot means following rules. "Besides," he says, "I ask them, 'what's A?' and they tell me 'Alpha.' What's 'D,' and they tell me 'Delta.' They're like adults, they're just short," he says.
Huntsville is home to Space Camp, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, but programs at those sites cater to kids older than fourth grade. There's nothing for the little ones, and that's why he's here, he says. "Huntsville is the heart of aerospace," Jim says. "This is an opportunity for kids to feel what its like to be a pilot. Kids have got to stop looking at aviation and start using it. Aviation is the No. 1 best weapon we have in the war against drugs and gangs."
Aerospace giant Lockheed-Martin, which has a corporate office in Huntsville, has paid to have the program put on for employees' families. Morgan County Public Schools has invited Stepping Stones to put on programs for elementary schools. Local day care centers and pre-schools bus their Little Lindys and Earharts in for "flying lessons."
Jim wants to grow the three-year-old Stepping Stones into a program for 200 to 600 students a year. He's eyeing land in Morgan County to build a Stepping Stones Airport - a place he can have classrooms, a bigger workshop, and more airplanes, which he builds himself. Corporate grants, donations, and $1,250-a-day fees at air shows keep the not-for-profit company operating and the fleet of a half-dozen or so "child-sized airplane simulators" - including a P-51 Mustang, a Boeing Stearman, a Christian Eagle, an F-14 Tomcat, and an F-117 Stealth fighter - flying.
Back at Richards-Gebauer, a hot, tired father takes his eye off his brood to watch a jet roar past. His son, flying the F-14 Tomcat for the umpteenth time, hardly notices the powerful, loud airplane overhead but does his best to mimic the noise as he zips around "the patch."
With a "Time to go, kiddo," from Dad, he taxis between a miniature American Champion Decathlon and the Stearman. As he climbs out, another young pilot stands ready to strap in.
The father and son shake hands with Jim as they leave. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen," says the dad.
The son whips off a quick salute. "Thanks, Cap'n," he says.
Editor's Note: As this issue went to press Stepping Stones to Aviation lost its lease along Highway 20 in Madison, Alabama. The Dzuibaniks said they will continue to present their program at air shows around the country - they expect to attend nearly 22 this year - and they are looking for a new place to call home.
Wherever they end up, Jim says he wants to create a learn-to-fly center for kids, particularly underprivileged kids who might not otherwise get an opportunity to become pilots. He hopes to sponsor five students through solo and two of those through private pilot certification. For other students, he would like to sponsor a credit program at local banks - students would get educational loans to learn to fly, which they would pay back with their "Ronald McDonald jobs," he says. For more information on Stepping Stones to Aviation, call 205/461-6005.
