Students have unique opportunity to learn about aviation industry in Eagle County
Eagle Aviators summer program begins in June
John LaConte/Vail Daily
The Eagle Aviators summer program is set to get off the runway, with local high school students invited to help build airplanes, fly airplanes in a simulator and receive a free flight in a plane with a local instructor.
The group will begin meeting on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in June, and students are welcome to participate at the level that works best for their schedule.
Students interested in building a plane can work with licensed airframe and powerplant mechanics to help build a Rans 21 plane, which the group expects to complete next year and begin using as a training aircraft. The time spent can then be used as high school elective credits.
Students interested in flying can also use the hours spent building to earn something the Eagle Aviators program calls “flybucks” to reduce the cost of real flying lessons outside the simulator.
Ordinarily, an hour of flight training through the Eagle Aviators program costs students $150 for the plane (fuel included) and $30 for the instruction, but up to $50 flybucks can be applied to reduce the cost to $130.
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“It’s the most affordable way for students to do a flight school,” said instructor Taylor Seaton.
Seaton said some students are interested only in the mechanics of the plane and have no interest in flying, and some students only want to fly and aren’t interested in building a plane. Those students can earn flybucks doing administrative work, which includes grant writing and fundraising and other aspects of flight program organizing that can be useful in careers in airport administration.
Seaton said the non-profit Eagle Aviators program relies on donations, so students who are helpful in the administrative work around fundraising are as important to the program as those building the planes.
Student Jesus Garcia, a sophomore at Eagle Valley High School, got involved in the program last year and was recently awarded the EAA’s 2026 Jay I. Kislak Memorial Flight Training scholarship for $10,000 to put toward flight school.
Garcia said after his first visit to the hangar near the Eagle County Airport (the use of which has been donated to the program by Signature Aviation), he knew he wanted to pursue a career in aviation.
“I went through the gate into the hanger, and I just saw all these planes everywhere, and everyone introduces themselves and starts helping me learn how to use the tools,” he said. “And then later they asked me if I wanted to use the flight simulator, which I was surprised they allowed me to use it, and I learned so much on just the first day, I started coming back as much as I could.”
On June 20, Eagle Aviators will host an EAA Young Eagles event at 9 a.m. at 871 Cooley Mesa Road in Gypsum.
To get involved in the Eagle Aviators, email happool@gmail.com.
