Young Eagle program could spark a lifelong love of the air

WENDY DOHERTY FOR THE EXPRESS | June 27, 2022

Abe, age 5, is not old enough to become a Young Eagle yet, but he did get to sit in the cockpit of a Maule M-5. Pilot Randy Kilmer shows him some fine points of the instrumentation. 📷: WENDY DOHERTY/FOR THE EXPRESS

LOCK HAVEN — Imagine taking off in a four-seater plane for the very first time. Where is the door? What kind of seats are these? Can I fly the plane? Your stomach feels the way it does at the start of a roller-coaster ride, doesn’t it?

Now imagine that you are 8 years old.

You’d get a real kick out of the experience, no doubt.

Pilots get a kick out of it, too. They want to share their love for flying, and one way they can is to take kids and teens up into the wild blue yonder for the very first time. These fun, free flights for youth ages 8 through 17 were offered Saturday at the Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven Fly-In, through the nationwide Young Eagles program.

The registration table in front of Piper Aviation Museum was swamped at 10 a.m., but once families were signed in, a number of small planes, plus a helicopter, started taking new Young Eagles on their first flights.

The thrill of flying can hook you, and pilots like to reminisce about the moment they knew they would spend as much of their lives as possible in the air. Moments like that often take place during an earth-bound human’s first experience in the sky, particularly in a small plane.

Years from now, will Melanie Saunders be one of these pilots?

Melanie, age 11, and her sister, Violet, age 8, had their first such adventure in a special plane, the museum’s PA-22 Tri-Pacer, a fabric plane built right here in the mid 50s. The pilot, Eric Cipcic, Is one of only two people allowed to fly this historic aircraft, which is in fabulous condition for its age. He told his young passengers and their parents that Phil Hoy donated the Tri-Pacer to the museum so it could be used for Young Eagles flights.

Cipcic is a flight instructor, a commercial pilot, and more. He said, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years, can you believe it?”

He also works at UPMC in Williamsport. Violet and Melanie’s mother, Megan, knows Eric through work, saw a Young Eagles poster he’d put up, and thought it would be fun for her daughters. She and husband Josh brought the girls to the museum building Saturday, and Eric invited Megan to ride along as his personal guest.

Young Melanie had the co-pilot seat for their adventure.

Cipcic executed the take-off but flew only briefly before handing the controls over to her, and Melanie followed the flight pattern for most of their ride. In the end, she turned the plane toward the runway and Cipcic landed it without a hitch.

Back on the ground, his first words were, “She’s a natural. She needs to be a pilot!”

Melanie simply said, “l got to fly it!”

“Mom was a little terrified in the back,” Megan added with a smile.

Violet wasn’t. She said matter-of-factly that she saw buildings, houses, pools as they flew over the river and town.

“I liked it when we went up and down,” she said.

Each young eagle received mementos of the day, including a personal log book for their time in the air.

The Young Eagles program is sponsored by EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and has reached more than 1 million kids across the country, said Steve Dershimer.

“I’ve taken well over 100 kids up over the years,” he said.

Commercial pilot Randy Kilmer of the Bellefonte area flew kids in a Maule M-5, 235 (horsepower). His T- shirt said it all: “Life is simple — eat, sleep, fly.”

Kilmer flies a Pilates PC-12 commercially, a plane that can take eight passengers.

“I love it,” he said. “I’ve been flying over 50 years.”

His Young Eagles of the day included two 8-year-old girls, Ave and Sylvia.

Ave’s family lives on East Bald Eagle Street, not far from the airport, so it’s natural that the kids take an interest in all things related to planes.

Ave’s mother, Ali, said they watch planes fly over their house from their backyard pool, especially during Sentimental Journey. They took special note of a pink plane, The Pink Panther, and went to the airport to got a closer look at the small aircraft that had been delighting local residents Tuesday through Saturday.

Pictured: Melanie, age 11 with Pilot Eric Cipcic, CRNA, PHRN, MSN 📷: WENDY DOHERTY/FOR THE EXPRESS

“We come down every year during the Fly-In,” Ali said. “This year we saw a sign for the Young Eagles flights.”

Allie and husband Jim have three other children, including two who were busy living their teenage lives on Saturday and missed out on the free flight. Their youngest is Abram, age 5.

Ave went up with her friend Sylvia, of Castanea.

“It was cool,” Ave said. “You got to twist around and fly really high in the air.”

“The (air) hills tickled our bellies!” Sylvia said.

Sylvia’s younger brother, Ben, age 4, waited on the grass with his friend Abe. The boys were not happy that they were too young and had to be on the ground instead of in the air. Kilmer let them sit in his plane instead, and their mothers had a trip to the candy store planned as a consolation prize.

Still, the boys were a bit downcast about the unfairness of always being younger brothers.

Three years from now, though, look for them to get their own Young Eagles log books and have their own amazing experience in a small plane while getting a birds-eye view of their towns.

Perhaps one or both of them will be bit by the flying bug, and nothing will look quite the same.

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CRNAs Looking for Opportunities to Help Pa. with Vaccination Program

Pennsylvania’s certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) possess unique skillsets that have made our professionals critical to the state’s response to the health-care crisis caused by COVID-19. So many of you have worked long and hard to meet the growing demands of this pandemic.

Because of your commitment to patient health, many of you want to do even more.

CRNAs have been reaching out to the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) to examine ways our profession may be able to help the state implement and potentially expand its vaccination program by offering to support clinics or providing volunteers. With our high level of education and training, CRNAs are perfectly suited for the task at hand.

PANA has had discussions with the commonwealth during this critical juncture to offer our services and make sure they know about our willingness to take on a bigger role.

Unfortunately, at this early stage of the vaccine rollout and based on available supplies, the first phases of the program are locked in place. We will continue to work with the state on future opportunities as vaccinations progress in the weeks and months ahead.

If you want to make sure the state knows you are available to help, the Department of Health is encouraging individuals to register on Pennsylvania’s online registry for medical and non-medical volunteers: https://www.serv.pa.gov/.

If you want to stay on top of the work PANA is doing to offer its assistant, and any future opportunities that may arise from our work with the state, please visit https://www.pana.org/page/vaccineprovidercommitment.

Please note that these are two separate databases, and by signing up via the PANA site you are not adding yourself to a pool of volunteers. More information will be shared at a later date when it becomes available.

All of us at PANA are so proud of the work being done by CRNAs and SRNAs around the state, and we are so grateful that so many of you reached out to the association about your ideas on ways to help with the vaccination program. We have the same shared goals and will do all we can to help you so you can fulfill your mission to help others.

PANA Supports Members’ PPE Needs by Purchasing Masks

Pittsburgh TV station WTAE-TV 4 (ABC) recently featured a piece about the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists (PANA) investing $40,000 to purchase 1,000 masks for certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) working on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial for CRNAs, and the shortage of some material has been alarming. CRNAs often work with patients’ airways and perform intubations and other procedures. COVID-19 is a respiratory pandemic that is spread through coughing or sneezing, so our members are up close and at great risk.

To protect its members, the PANA board voted in March to have masks made for members who need them, or for those who may have been working in facilities where PPE was limited or quantities were diminishing. The focus was on those in hospitals in direct response and others in high-need areas.

All of this came after guidance came from the federal government that during shortages, any facial covering, even a bandanna, would be better than nothing.

At first, PANA allocated $20,000 for a first run of 500 masks. That first run was nearly accounted for in 48 hours. (CRNAs were made aware of the masks via email.) The board then allocated another $20,000 for 500 masks. All told, PANA is investing $40,000 for 1,000 masks.

These are not basic cloth masks, but rather advanced prototypes. The masks have been innovatively designed after extensive review of a variety of mask prototypes used by healthcare professionals. The masks are reusable and feature a filter, with three replacements.

The manufacturing is being done through a vendor from Evans City --- Ifft Enterprises, LLC, in Evans City in western Pennsylvania. Among the first order, and this is a large order, about 61 percent of the masks were manufactured in Evans City; the balance were made in Michigan by a subcontractor Ifft Enterprises works with during periods of high demand.

Each CRNA must request the mask individually. The manufacturer then ships the masks directly to the CRNA. But PANA is underwriting the full cost --- both manufacturing and shipping.

We are proud of the work CRNAs are doing to respond to this crisis and remain committed to doing all we can as an association to keep our CRNAs healthy and safe so they in turn can keep patients healthy and safe.