Taking flight

One of the goals for a small, local airport is to build an interest in aviation.
A way to do that is to not only allow residents the opportunity to ride in a plane, but to fly it themselves.
For the last few months, Portland Municipal Airport has been striving toward that goal, offering flight instruction for the first time in about five years.
“Flight instruction, it kind of is the entry level and introduction to somebody learning about aviation,” said airport manager Hal Tavzel, who went on his first flight in Louisiana at age 17 and began lessons a year later. “When people are educated, it develops interest in flying.”
Portland Board of Aviation had expressed an interest in offering instruction again, as it had been years since Miller Aviation discontinued the service following the death of former owner Dave Miller.
Tavzel discussed the possibility at a board meeting early this year, but had several deals to secure a plane fall through. However, he met with Fort Recovery resident Jeff Roessner, who already had a mostly-unused plane stored at they airport, and they were able to come to a rental agreement.
Now, eight students are taking flight lessons. One of those is Jeff’s son, Jason, and another is Aaron Vaughn, who teaches fifth grade at General Shanks Elementary School in Portland.
“I got up there and I thought, ‘This would be so much fun,’” said Vaughn of a flight he took with a friend a few months ago. “It’s just a different perspective of everything.
“I just thought it was an amazing thing to be able to do.”
Training starts with the basics, beginning with ground training that can be done online. That includes learning all of the parts of the plane, from the wings and propeller on the outside to all of the gauges and controls on the inside.
When students first gets in the air with an instructor, they learn about basic maneuvers such as turns, climbs and descents. Then comes flying — taking off, landing and everything in between — first with assistance, and eventually with the flight instructor doing less and less.
Students then move on to taking off and landing alone in the plane, and then to their first solo flight.
“Cross countries,” flights of 50 nautical miles or more, with an instructor follow, and finally the new pilots complete those long flights on their own. Vaughn has already taken one Federal Aviation Administration written exam, and will have another FAA oral and flight exam later in his training.
The most important part of the whole process, which should take six months to a year depending on how often a student is available for lessons, is making sure new pilots are taking the proper precautions, said instructor Justin Ames.
“No. 1 is always safety, in anything you do in flying, whether it be preflight … taking off and landing, being observant of where the other traffic is,” added Ames, who worked for an aircraft dealership in Kokomo before coming to fly for Tavzel’s Sonrise Aviation about a year ago. “And just overall safety when you’re flying the airplane.”
Vaughn, who has been taking lessons for about two months now, said the area Ames has helped him the most is just in understanding the plane. Being in the aircraft in person, he noted, is much different than seeing one online or in a book.
There is plenty of adjusting to do to, because so little in an airplane equates vehicles most are used to operating.
“You’re using your feet to move the airplane, just taxi it,” said Vaughn, who hopes to use his flying skills to take his family on vacation to Tennessee, to visit his stepsons at college and eventually to travel to watch his triplet daughters (now eighth graders) play college volleyball. “You’ve almost got to put your hands under your butt and just not think of it that way because it has nothing to do with what you’re used to doing with a car.
“There’s so many things that are new.”
Getting involved in flight lessons is as simple as calling the airport at (260) 729-5233 or Ames at (765) 473-2525.
There is a lease fee of $60 for the plane, plus a fuel cost of about $30 per hour of flight time. The instructor’s fee is $30 per hour as well.
Students have no commitment, meaning they could take one lesson and decide it’s not for them. Or, as Tavzel hopes, that first lesson could spark a lifelong interest in flying, with the potential of a student eventually buying an aircraft, becoming a member of the airport board or making aviation their life’s work.
 “Eventually, one of those persons might pursue a professional career,” said Tavzel. “Like myself, I started at a small airport. It starts right here.”