52 children turn out for free airplane rides

He met his personal goal of flying 1,000 youngsters.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — It was a larger turnout than Jack Thompson could have imagined.

The Grove City man had 52 youngsters show up Saturday at the New Castle Airport for free plane rides through the Experimental Aviation Association’s Young Eagles program.

The large turnout helped Thompson meet his personal goal of flying more than 1,000 youngsters. By day’s end, Thompson had flown a total of 1,041. He started giving free flights to youngsters between ages 8 and 17 in 1994.

Young Eagles is a national program designed to introduce the younger generation to flight.

Thompson said he was surprised by the turnout Saturday with youngsters and their parents showing up at 10 a.m. when the flights were scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. He ended up continuing the flights through 4 p.m. because of the heavy demand.

“This was a personal high for me. I had not flown more than 34 in a day before,” he said.

Thompson has been offering the free flights for the last month in an attempt to reach his goal. He said he will now take a break from offering Young Eagle flights, but he said he expects to do it again in the future.

Though the flights to the youngsters are free, Thompson picks up the cost of the plane rental.

The youngsters go up for 10 to 15 minutes, hitting about 1,000 feet of altitude.