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Teenagers given opportunity to look down on their world

Brothers Coby and Riley Richardson had never flown in a small private airplane before. Neither had Luke Pope. And Sarah Aranguiz.

But they have now.

All four teenagers, who ironically have ties with ITD, had opportunities to see the mountains of central Idaho for the first time from above its jagged mountain peaks, and from narrow strips carved between rising pinnacles.

They were part of the ACE Academy’s Class of 2012, which spent three days learning aviation from the ground up and from the sky down. Nearly two dozen teens from throughout Idaho, and the Richardsons who are from Spokane, participated in this year's Aviation Career Education program.

Coby, 13, attends Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane and older brother Riley attends Lewis and Clark High School. They learned of the ACE Academy from an inside source – grandfather Jerry Whitehead is chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board.

Pope, 14 a Nampa Christian High School freshman, learned of the three-day school from his father, Jon, who left ITD as Chief Technology Officer in January and now works on a family farm in Australia.

Aranguiz, who graduated from Sky View High School in Nampa, has aspirations of becoming an airline flight attendant. Since most airlines require applicants to be 21, the 18-year-old has a few years to prepare. One possible task on her interim to-do list might be obtaining a private pilot’s license.

She is the daughter of Sergio Aranguiz, who works in ITD’s Enterprise Technology Services group.

“I absolutely love flying … I could live in the air,” she said.

Not surprising, her favorite part of three-day experience was briefly taking the controls of a small plane over the Sawtooth Mountains. It was her maiden flight, sitting in a cockpit next to an experienced pilot who volunteered his aircraft and time for the excursion.

All three of her immediate colleagues – the Richardsons and Pope – enthusiastically agreed the flights were high-water marks for the academy.

“I liked being able to see all the landscape and being able to see things from a higher view,” Riley said.

Still holding his unused air sickness bag, Pope said the two-hour flight started out a little bumpy but soon settled into a smooth ride as the pilot flew to Idaho City, Smith Prairie, Garden Valley and finally to the Nampa Airport.

In Nampa Wednesday, the teenagers toured Warhawk Air Museum, and following a catered lunch, visited the flight operations center and international offices of Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Also included on the three-day itinerary were trips to the National Interagency Fire Center, Jetstream & Ponderosa, the Boise air terminal and control tower, Western Aircraft, the Idaho National Guard and Gowen Field, the Idaho Military Museum, R&M Steel and Silverhawk Aviation.

The academy included teens from Spokane, Boise, Eagle, Emmett, Gooding, Hamer, Jerome, Lewiston, Melba, Meridian, Middleton and Nampa. They ranged in age from 13 to 18.

It was the final ACE academy for longtime organizer Frank Lester, safety/education coordinator for ITD’s Division of Aeronautics. Lester formally retires from the department after 15 years today (Friday, June 29).

Photos: Teenagers participating in the annual ACE (Aviation Career Education) academy got a history education when they toured the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa Wedneday.