Rogers students fly high with Wright Flight

Teenagers’ academic, behavioral success rewarded with airplane flights

Pilot Tim Keaten (right) helps student Fernando Lopez, 14, into an airplane before taking flight Wednesday during the Wright Flight Fly Day at the Bentonville Municipal Airport. Pilots with the Tailwind Aviation Foundation flew with six students from Crossroads, Rogers’ alternative high school.
Pilot Tim Keaten (right) helps student Fernando Lopez, 14, into an airplane before taking flight Wednesday during the Wright Flight Fly Day at the Bentonville Municipal Airport. Pilots with the Tailwind Aviation Foundation flew with six students from Crossroads, Rogers’ alternative high school.

BENTONVILLE -- Several high school students interested in aviation got to see the world from a different perspective, an experience that just might influence their career choices.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Dakota Ullom, 17, checks out the interior of an airplane Wednesday before flying in it while taking part in the Wright Flight Fly Day at the Bentonville Municipal Airport. Pilots with the Tailwind Aviation Foundation flew with six students from Crossroads, Rogers’ alternative high school. Each student earned the right to fly a plane when they fulfilled a written contract with the school to accomplish an agreed upon goal, remain drug, alcohol and tobacco free and complete a nine-hour aviation history course and pass an exam with an 85 percent or better grade.

Six students from Crossroads, the Rogers School District's alternative learning environment, qualified for a free trip in a small plane this week because they had met certain academic and behavioral requirements.

Crossroads moving

Crossroads, the Rogers School District’s alternative education program, shares a building with New Technology High School on South First Street.

The district is buying property at 305 N. Second St., which eventually will become the new home of Crossroads. The move will allow New Technology High School to expand.

Crossroads has a capacity of 150 high school students and 30 middle school students.

Source: Staff report

It was the first time Dakota Ullom, 17, had ever been in a plane.

"I was pretty psyched," said Ullom, upon returning from a 30-minute flight in a Cessna 182 RG with pilot Kenny Bryant. "If it wasn't for this program, I don't think I'd be able to fly at all."

The program is called Wright Flight, which uses aviation as a way to motivate students.

Wright Flight gets students to sign a contract that includes a specific goal for them to attain, one that's usually tied to academics. Students complete a course on aviation history and must score at least 85 percent on the class exam. The contract also stipulates the students stay away from alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

If students meet all those conditions, they are rewarded with a "fly day" where they get to fly with a licensed pilot. They also get a certificate and a Wright Flight T-shirt.

Larry Chalmers, a Crossroads math teacher and longtime pilot, organized a group for students interested in aviation. They took a field trip to the Bentonville Municipal Airport.

"We came out to tour the airport, and I asked if there was any way we can get these kids up and flying in a plane," Chalmers said.

That's when airport officials informed him about Wright Flight.

"We hope to grow (Wright Flight) across Northwest Arkansas," said Dave Powell, owner of Summit Aviation, the company that runs the Bentonville airport.

Powell and Tim Keaten, a Bentonville resident and pilot, organized an annual event in 2011 called Take Off for Kids, a poker run with planes. Proceeds from the event typically are donated to different charities each year, but last year Powell and Keaten decided to focus on Wright Flight with the money they raise.

The Crossroads group's fly day was Wednesday at the Bentonville airport.

Michael Robertson, 17, flew with Keaten in a 1946 Ercoupe. It was Robertson's first time in a small plane. The flight made him a little queasy at first, but he said he managed it. He got to steer the plane for about five minutes.

"We flew to (Beaver Lake) and flew over my house and school," Robertson said.

Robertson, 17, expects to graduate from high school this December, then enroll at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Okla., to study avionics.

Other students in the Crossroads group are exploring futures in aviation-related careers. If the Wright Flight program didn't inspire them, it certainly stoked their interest, Chalmers said.

Crossroads is for middle and high school students who struggle in traditional schools. The student-to-teacher ratio is smaller than at traditional schools.

"These are kids who are at high, high risk for dropping out, and we manage to keep them in school," Principal Cindy Ford said.

Crossroads was recognized Thursday at the state Capitol as one of several model programs for alternative education, an honor bestowed by the Arkansas Department of Education, Ford said. Thursday was Alternative Education Leadership Day.

Crossroads students are divided into groups that meet at the beginning of each day. Those groups focus on certain shared interests, such as the aviation group Chalmers oversees.

"Mr. Chalmers happens to be a pilot, and he wanted to present something on aviation. It's a great career connection for the students, too," Ford said.

That grouping system is one reason Crossroads earned model-program recognition, Ford said.

"Taking care of social and emotional needs of the student is part of the charge, and we take care of ours in a unique way. The state recognizes that as a unique and effective way of addressing the students," she said.

Sixty-four Crossroads students graduated Friday. Crossroads students typically account for at least 5 percent of the Rogers district's graduates each year, Ford said.

The mission at Crossroads is to get students ready to return to a traditional school.

"That's our objective, but we fail miserably at that because once the student gets here they don't want to leave," Ford said.

NW News on 05/21/2016

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