Find out more about Eagle's Wings Flightschool that is dedicated to encourage the next generation with their charity program in this interview.

Can you please briefly introduce your flight school and it’s purpose?

Eagle’s Wings Flight School (EWFS) is a registered charity that is committed to helping at-risk youth find their passion and chart a pathway to success in early adulthood and beyond. Flight training is a unique opportunity and a window into an industry with a need for professionals of all types for many years to come. By training youth to fly, an activity and a career that they never would have thought possible, their perception of themselves, their strengths, and their capabilities will be transformed.

Most of the 14-18 year old aviators you train have never flown in an airplane before. Can you describe how they feel after having tasted flight?

Not only have almost all of our students never flown before, but most also did not have a driver's license either so getting in an advanced ultralight and going flying is a big leap into the unknown for them but they go for it. Everyone is taken with looking down on the world from above, and it isn't long before the cell phone photo requests get voiced to our instructors. It is such a privilege for me to be right beside them as their smile widens and the nervous excitement starts to shift towards just plain old excited when they start flying the aircraft themselves. We had a student ask how high we could climb and when we asked why he wanted to get up that high, his response was: "so I can see what the world looks like from that perspective!

Your school uses the Allegro 2000 powered by the Rotax 912UL. What advantages does this aircraft/engine combination have over the traditional options?

Using an ultralight aircraft for training allows EWFS to offer the same entry-level instruction that would be taught on a larger airplane but at a reduced cost. The low downtime and reasonable maintenance costs enable us to keep students in the air as much as possible. It is an efficient engine and we have yet to burn any oil so our consumable costs are relatively low and very predictable which is a great operational advantage for Eagle's Wings