ACES high

It wasn't aviation's $2 billion economic impact for Idaho ($129 million in Kootenai County). It wasn't the humanitarian appeal of search and rescue missions, firefighting, or medical transports, although they strengthen the draw.

Hayden resident and Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy sophomore Elena Johnson simply loves to fly. It runs in the family; mom is a pilot and brother Aaron was logging hours in classic warbirds at the age of 2. Elena is rather fond of those yellow Cubs, like pilot-writer Mike Kincaid's as it glides over glassy Hayden Lake each summer.

What Elena couldn't understand last week is why a fellow student at ACE Academy - a mini-camp for young aviators sponsored by the Idaho Transportation Department's Division of Aeronautics (IDA) - was texting during the demo flight, instead of looking down at the Boise terrain.

"My phone was off," Elena said. "I mean, what's not amazing and beautiful about mountains and rivers from 8,000 feet?"

ACE Academy began as a Federal Aviation Administration program in 1992; ITD's aeronautics division took over in 1997. Each summer about 30 teens from around the state are introduced to multiple aspects of aviation at the three-day academy in Boise.

ACE kids have toured control towers/FAA and airport operations, Idaho's Air National Guard (getting close and personal with the elite A-10), Boise's Warhawk Air Museum, Search and Rescue, Homeland Security, BSU (they have a wind tunnel and wing design project), private aviation companies, and the National Interagency Fire Center, to name a few.

"My favorite, other than the flight of course, was probably the fire center," Elena said. Some students also found NIFC's sewing room surprising, where firefighters and pilots maintain their parachutes.

Why does the state do this? Fulfilling IDA's mission to "foster and promote aviation" is the easy answer, but not the best.

"The greatest satisfaction is seeing that ear-to-ear grin of a young man or woman who has just received their first flight in a small airplane ... It is the best part of my job," said Frank Lester, ACE Academy director and the division's Safety/Education Coordinator.

On the last day volunteer pilots take ACE students up in private planes, and at their own cost. Flying isn't cheap and contrary to popular belief, it isn't necessarily a rich man (or woman's) sport. It took me two years to get a license in financial fits and starts. For years thereafter, I traded flight time for work (and still would). One flight at a time delays things, but it's well worth it to, as Royal Air Force pilot John Gillespie Magee put it, "slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the sky on laughter-silvered wings."

Elena has already started saving. That's my girl.

For more information on ACE click "Events" at http://itd.idaho.gov/aero/ or call the division at (208) 334-8775. To the staff, agencies, pilots, and other volunteers who made 2011 ACE possible, a heartfelt thanks.

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network and may be reached at [email protected].