Real kids building real airplanes

In 1988 a Piper PA–32-300 overloaded with fishing cargo was attempting a landing at an Alaska airport when it stalled a few feet above the runway and dropped to the ground. The impact of the hard landing pushed the main landing gear up through the wings and twisted the fuselage. A mechanic hauled off the wreck to a spot in the woods, where it sat for years under a blue tarp—an inglorious end to the 15-year life of a workhorse aircraft.

Or so it seemed.

Talkeetna-area citizens Larry Rivers, a retired bush pilot, and Rebecca Fisher Cozad, an air-taxi pilot and airline pilot, had something in common: a strong desire to brighten the future for local youth who were dropping out of school or leaving town. There must be a way, they believed, to motivate kids to graduate from high school and stay in the local area as members of the workforce.

Cozad connected with Lyn Freeman, founder of Build-A-Plane, a nonprofit launched in 2003 to give youngsters a chance to build a real airplane (www.buildaplane.com). Soon after, Rivers said, a presentation to a standing-room-only community meeting followed—and Talkeetna Build-A-Plane was born, with Rivers its director (it is a separate entity from the national nonprofit).

Over the next seven winters, a succession of youngsters participated in the restoration, fabricating every needed part, and learning every necessary skill at each stage.

The restored Piper now sits on the airport ramp awaiting installation of instruments and finishing touches. When that work is done, it will pave the way for the aircraft to be sold to finance Talkeetna Build-A-Plane’s future restoration projects.

Rivers said that the students who participate in the restorations at no cost to their families aren’t there helping grownups work on the airplanes. The students perform all the labor, hence the group’s motto, “Real Kids Building Real Airplanes.”

For the participants, the experience doesn’t end when they have built an airplane. Students can learn to fly. Rivers estimated that 14 percent of the program’s approximately 150 past participants, many who had never been to an airport before working on an airplane, are now employed in aviation—with more earning pilot certificates or enrolled in aircraft maintenance training programs.

Currently, Talkeetna Build-A-Plane participants are restoring an older-model, straight-tailed Cessna 172.

Email [email protected]