Three teenage members of the Civil Air Patrol’s Pike County Composite Squadron had their first orientation flights on U.S. Air Force auxiliary planes last weekend.
Cadet Airmen 1st Class Abigail Ables, 14, an eighth-grader at Denman Junior High School; Stephen Martin, 14, an eighth-grader at South Pike Junior High School; and Jamar Govan, 15, a sophomore at McComb High School, took off from the McComb-Pike County Airport and flew toward Liberty on Sept. 17.
All three had the opportunity to fly the plane for close to an hour.
Pilot U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Anthony Fields was on the plane the entire time helping all three of the cadets as they flew a plane for the first time.
“Everybody did really well,” Fields said. “Nobody got sick. Everybody seemed to enjoy it.”
Fields said Ables, Martin and Govan all became more comfortable as time went along.
“Most of them were able to keep their altitude pretty well so, from there, it’s just a matter of left and right,” Fields said. “They tend to drift left and right. You just have to keep an eye on them, look out at the horizon and keep the plane straight.”
Ables said she enjoyed controlling the plane, but she had to get past her initial fears.
“At first, I thought we were going to crash as many times as I was up there,” she said. “When you get used to it, it was fun. When I knew that there was somebody there that was actually trained for it and going to help us, I knew that we were fine.”
Govan had similar issues.
“It was fun,” he said. “I was nervous at first, but when we got off the ground, I was calm. I don’t know what it was, but when I got off the ground and looked down, I saw it looked pretty nice down there. We were in Liberty. It was grass, a bunch of houses, some construction going on and cars.”
Martin became more knowledgeable as the flight went along.
“It was great,” he said. “I learned a lot. I learned how to lift a plane, fly it and all the controls.”
The Civil Air Patrol’s Pike County Composite Squadron is open to prospective cadets ages 12 to 18.
“Cadets fly up,” said senior member James Church. “They get five training flights and it’s to teach them to fly and what the actual mission of this organization is. Our mission is not just to sit there and be cadets. It’s to work yourself up and be part of the Civil Air Patrol or Air Force, whichever one you want to go into.
“These kids have got to learn that since we’re part of the Air Force and Auxiliary, they learn this is our mission, to fly these planes like this. We’re giving them the experience of flying and everything right off the bat.”
Senior member Anne Richard also said flying was part of the mission.
“It’s part of our mission of aerospace education,” she said. “They have aerospace modules and bookwork that they do to move through the aerospace program the Civil Air Patrol has. This is part of that.”
Richard said the goal is for each cadet to fly within 60 days of joining the organization.
“It's an incentive to stay in the program and pursue a life in aviation,” she said.
