Area kids, flying enthusiasts help mark anniversary
EAST LIVERMORE – More than 100 children from SAD 52 schools gathered at a small airstrip to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first airplane flight.
The children learned about Wilbur and Orville Wright, brothers from Ohio who built the first successful motor-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine a century ago. Their first flight was at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903.
The outing, held at Bowman Field, was organized by Leeds Central School teacher Sheila Lyman and her husband, Ken, who are members of the Bowman Field Flying Club. The Lymans and other club members planned and organized the event at the club’s privately owned airstrip about five miles from Livermore Falls.
Cindy Dugay, SAD 52’s gifted and talented program teacher, brought 28 science students from Tripp Middle School in Turner. The remainder of the students were from grades three through six at Leeds Central School.
John Smith of Wayne brought 61 years of flying experience to share with the students. He received his initial flight training from the U.S. Navy in 1942. He flew F6F Hellcat fighters in the Pacific.
“They’re a tough airplane,” Smith said.
The war in Europe began in September 1939, on the same day that Smith started his senior year at a high school in Iowa. He said he knew he would be going to war and he decided that day that he would become a pilot. Today, Smith owns and flies a Cessna 150.
Chief warrant officers Joseph Belwood and Michael Pratt of the U.S. Army National Guard stationed in Bangor had planned to fly a helicopter to the event, but maintenance on the chopper resulted in the pair arriving in a truck.
They said many of the helicopters based in Bangor are on deployment in Iraq and Kuwait. Belwood is a flight instructor and Pratt is a maintenance test pilot.
Pratt asked a group of children what subjects in school they feel are important if they plan to pursue careers in aviation. Math and science were the two top answers. Belwood and Pratt stressed the importance of education for anyone interested in aviation as future pilots and maintenance personnel and for anyone interested in a military career.
“There’s an old joke,” Belwood said, “that you can teach a monkey to fly, but you can’t teach him to communicate on the radio.” He was making a point that written and oral skills are as important as math and science.
“I think flying is very interesting,” said fourth-grader Jessica Smith. “Hopefully, I’ll become a pilot. I’m not sure.”
Fourth-grader Drake Routhier added, “Yeah, I hope to become a pilot. But the military, I don’t know. I’ll probably be a rescue pilot.”
Mike Partridge of Livermore Falls, a member of the Bowman Field Flying Club, stressed safety as he explained various parts of several small Cessna aircraft.
“One thing you should never do is touch a propeller, because it can always start. I had that happen to me once,” he said. “The propeller is like a cork screw. It pulls the airplane through the air.”
An elementary school child interrupted Partridge to ask what a “panic button” in the cockpit of an airplane was for. The pilot laughed. “That’s just fake.”
Also at the airstrip on Friday, Twitchell’s Flying Service of Turner provided an airborne demonstration. A LifeFlight helicopter based at Central Maine Medical Center was scheduled to conduct a demonstration for the children, but an emergency call resulted in LifeFlight having to cancel.
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