A hangar of possibility

Depending on the evening, they might overhaul an engine, install avionics, rig flight controls, sew aircraft upholstery, study an accident report, or listen to an airline pilot describe the final approach into LaGuardia Airport, New York. They're not standing behind a rope watching someone else work, they're doing it all themselves.

Katz started the nonprofit in 2019 after he and a local aircraft mechanic, Gene McLean, bought a Cessna 172. Katz's two sons pitched in on the restoration and soon asked if their friends could join. That first work session grew quickly, and veteran pilots, mechanics, and other aviation professionals around the airport began showing up also. Many had spent decades building expertise they wanted to pass on but never had a clear way to do it; the restoration project gave them one.

"All the elderly folks at the airport wanted to share their knowledge and their love of aviation with the kids," Katz said. "They just didn't have a venue or know how to do it." And it's not just the people. Among the program's tools is an industrial Singer sewing machine that once belonged to a man who taught Katz how to sew aircraft upholstery more than 20 years ago. After the man died, the machine was donated to the program, and now, Katz teaches the students the same way he was taught, passing techniques from one pair of hands to the next.

The program's first cohort grew to about 15 students. Together, they spent nearly three years restoring the Cessna 172 to airworthiness. Some students started the project at age 13 or 14 and were nearly adults by the time the airplane flew again.

Through the Sky Program, students learn how an aircraft is built, maintained, inspected, and repaired, and then they get to feel how those same systems perform in the air. "They were familiar with how the ailerons were rigged," Katz said. "Then they go to use them and develop their pilot skills."

Since the program began, about six participants have earned private pilot certificates, and several more are preparing for checkrides in the coming months. Others have moved on to aviation maintenance training, college aviation programs, and airport careers. One former participant passed the written exam required on the path to an airframe and powerplant mechanic certificate and expects to finish an A&P program soon. Katz's son, Jacob, earned his private pilot certificate and now works for a local airport authority while pursuing additional ratings.

For Katz, though, certificates only tell part of the story. The program's mission, he said, is to create what he calls "aha moments," the instant a student who has been staring at an unfamiliar part suddenly understands what it does and how it works. "You can see it flash through their eyes the moment they understand it," Katz said. "Our mission is to make a lot of that happen."

Students entering the program work on whatever project happens to be in the shop at the time. The Sky Program doesn't focus on a single manufacturer or aircraft type. Projects have included Cessnas, Pipers, Beechcraft aircraft, and other donated airframes.

That variety exposes students to systems around an airplane, from engines and avionics to wiring, upholstery, skins, and paperwork. During one trip to a local avionics manufacturer, students helped build a wiring harness for equipment later installed in one of the program's aircraft. On another trip to a repair station in Alabama, they watched engine parts get inspected, measured, tested, and returned to service, and they learned nondestructive testing techniques in a machine shop.

Adults supervise all of the work. Volunteers include certificated flight instructors, mechanics, pilots, FAA safety inspectors, and even an airline pilot who flies an Airbus A380. A volunteer is expected to work directly with the students and help them understand each task. "The focus of the program is the kids doing the work," Katz said. Even parents who volunteer are kept apart from their own children during work sessions, so the adults can act as mentors rather than parents and give students room to solve problems on their own. Older students help teach newcomers, creating a small chain of mentorship inside the larger one: Professionals teach the older students, older students teach the younger ones, and eventually the student who once needed help becomes the one offering it.

The Sky Program's lessons go beyond maintenance and flying. Students study real aviation accidents and discuss what went wrong, what potential risk factors were overlooked, and how a pilot or mechanic might have prevented the outcome. Katz believes that process of thinking will stay with them for the rest of their careers. "They'll hear a voice in their head that says, 'Do I need to take this flight? Am I ready to accept the risk? How do I reduce the risk?'" he said.

Students also build skills that have little to do with flying an airplane but everything to do with becoming a professional. They give safety presentations, speak with visitors, and represent the program at public aviation events, learning along the way how to explain technical topics with confidence.

Katz does not pretend every student will become a pilot or mechanic. Some will enter entirely different fields. His goal is simply to send them into adulthood with good judgment, real confidence, and proof that they can master difficult things. "We want to use the knowledge they gained in the youth program for their benefit on any path that they travel in life," Katz said.

That broader mission matters most during hard stretches, when young people feel isolated under pressure. Program leaders have open conversations about mental health and watching out for friends who might be struggling. The hangar gives students a place to work, Katz said, but it also gives them a community.

Katz hopes the Sky Program model can spread well beyond Knoxville, and he is willing to share the program's paperwork, guidelines, code of conduct, and lessons learned with anyone interested in starting a chapter elsewhere. "We're not doing anything totally impossible," he said. "It's possible for other people to do this."

Right now, the program needs additional funding, hangar space, corporate sponsorships, donated equipment, and volunteers willing to give their time. Fundraising remains a challenge. This summer, the organization raffled a Cessna 162 Skycatcher to help support its programs. Although ticket sales fell short of expectations, the organization proceeded with the July 28 drawing and awarded the aircraft to grand prize winner Jim Detgen. Additional prizes were awarded to Joseph Schuchart, who won a uAvionix AV-30-C display, and Robert Wiest, who won an AeroCreeper Original, an adjustable-height maintenance creeper designed to help aircraft owners and mechanics work more comfortably around and underneath airplanes.

More support would allow the organization to restore additional aircraft, expand student enrollment, and keep flight training affordable. Because students help maintain the aircraft and instructors often donate their time, participants can sometimes fly for little more than the cost of fuel, a significant advantage in an industry where cost alone can put a damper on a young person's aviation ambition. Additional resources would also help strengthen the aviation workforce pipeline at a time when the industry continues to seek new pilots, technicians, and other aviation professionals.

Katz's advice for a young person without much money is simple: Start at a local airport and ask for a tour. Show up often enough, he said, and someone will start explaining what they're doing. "That's where the learning starts," he said.

Several years after that first work session, the Sky Program's hangar is full of aircraft projects, students preparing for aviation careers, and experienced professionals making sure what they know does not disappear when they retire.

Aviation holds plenty of knowledge in its manuals and checklists, but some of its most important lessons still travel the way they always have: from person to person.