EAA Young Eagles Program Helps Youth Find His Passion

April 28, 2016 - Tyler Wells’ progression from a young teen interested in flight to a college student planning a career in aviation serves as an example of how EAA’s Young Eagles program allows youth to discover and follows their dreams.

Dick Peck, EAA 625605, wrote to EAA to share Tyler’s journey, which began seven years ago when Tyler attended a Young Eagles rally and took his first flight at age 11.

“After that first flight he seemed to have found his passion in flying and came back to fly at every Young Eagle event he could attend,” Peck said.

Peck said Wells shared that he did not behave very well during his early teen years, but said throughout that time he had asked for flight lessons more than once. If Wells could pass the written test, Peck said, he would allow Wells to come back and ask again.

Just before his 16th birthday, Wells passed the written test with a score in the mid-90s after taking Sporty’s online learn-to-fly course offered as part of the Young Eagles program.

Wells then joined the flying club, started working several jobs to pay for lessons and time in the airplane, and passed his checkride a little more than a year later.

Since then, Peck said Wells has earned his instrument, single, and multiengine commercial ratings and just attained his CFI. He now is a flight instructor for the flying club while simultaneously studying commercial aviation at a junior college.

“We do not expect most of the kids we fly to follow Wells’ example, but it is really fun when we find a young person that finds his or her passion and pursues their dreams in aviation,” Peck said. “Tyler and I would like to personally thank all of you at the EAA and the Young Eagles for providing a means for us to help kids find their passion and follow their dreams”