Posted on 07/12/2009 10:56:26 AM PDT by thecodont
A 15-year-old Los Angeles girl who navigated a single-engine Cessna through thunderstorms in Texas and took in breathtaking aerial views of Arizona's sunsets landed her plane to cheering crowds at Compton Woodley Airport on Saturday. She is believed to be the youngest African American female pilot to fly solo across the country.
Kimberly Anyadike took off from Compton 13 days ago with an adult safety pilot and Levi Thornhill, an 87-year-old who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. They flew to Newport News, Va., making about a dozen stops along the way.
Anyadike learned to fly a plane and helicopter when she was 12 with the Compton-based Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum, which offers aviation lessons to at-risk youth and economically disadvantaged students through an after-school program. The organization owns the small plane Anyadike flew.
Anyadike said she loved the feeling of streaking across the sky. She told her mother that it was like a wild ride at Magic Mountain.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The hype of this story is unbelievable and demonstrates clearly how little the public knows about flying in general, let alone what happens in the cockpit.
Little girl sits in front seat and has access to the controls, stop-the-presses!
This is a nonsense story from the git-go.
(Thanks for your informed comments).
Yep...and hopefully I've learned a few things in my 40 years as a pilot and A&P mechanic...;o)
In an aircraft, the instructor always has complete control (potentially). If the student is skilled, the instructor might not touch the controls at all, and a non-pilot might think of them as a "safety pilot". With a less skilled student, the instructor may do most of the flying. It is typical for an instructor to put hands on at critical moments.
COLLEGE, not COLLAGE!
Understood. . .no harm done, as you were surely helpful to many. I should have been more understanding.
Exactly right....and I don't know if I'd even call someone a "safety pilot" at all in the situtation . I might do some instrument approaches on the hood with another pilot in the right seat and refer to him as a "safety pilot" (which makes two certified pilots in the airplane)...and there is always at any given moment only one pilot in command and it can never be an un-certified person, no matter how young or slick they are on the stick .
That's pretty much it...
Later, the plane was found sitting on blocks with the battery and the stereo missing.
Never heard the term 'safety pilot'.
Exactly correct, and her “safety pilot” would have to be a current flight instructor or she couldn’t log a minute of time. Assuming she was with an instructor she could log dual instruction received. If Mr. safety wasn’t an instructor, they broke a whole buncha regs....
Yeah...so true...they didn't say if the actual pilot was a CFI or not. If not it's all a cutsy story until while handling the controls the "non-pilot" does something the legal pilot in command can't correct. Either way his ass is in serious trouble, and he is totally responsible and legally liable. Legal dual instruction is one thing...a non-CFI letting a non-pilot fly the airplane is something else...
Kind of a euphemism...but certainly not a rating!!...:o)
In Compton? It could happen!! LOL!
I can imagine the court transcript now...pilot:"my 15 year old neighbor's daughter was in control of the aircraft at the time of the accident." FAA: "Are you and were you current as a CFI and giving dual instruction at the time?" pilot: "well er no....private SEL only but were were trying to get this on the nightly news..." (the FAA just loves that sort of thing)...
I started flying with my dad very young ...started lessons at 16 and soloed in 8 hours....the press was no where around during any of that....I feel so cheated!!!
Then it is exactly true when I say a person of 12 years, or younger, can fly a plane with someone else at the dual controls? The fact is, you, and all the other idiots posting against me, didn’t comprehend what I wrote! I was all for young pilots and against the restrictions we have against young drivers, period.
Solo meaning all by myself...and I don't think the term safety pilot had even been invented yet...LOL!
That is a correct statement..
Signed "one of the idiots"...:o)
that is providing that other person is certified to be doing what they are in the process of doing...
That's what makes them Dems!
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