John Dutcher is very good at getting people up in small planes. The owner of the former Dutcher Paint building (now Love and Lace in Waverly) is the coordinator of the Young Eagles Kids Fly Free program out of the Waverly and Waterloo airports. He was recently recognized as one of the top three Young Eagles program coordinators out of 900 programs in the United States.
“We have one of the most outstanding Young Eagles programs,” he said. “They designated me as one of the three Young Eagles Coordinators of the Year.” On Saturday, he and other pilots from the Experimental Aircraft Association welcomed around 130-140 kids to the Kids Fly Free event at Waverly.
(At mid-morning he wasn’t sure of the final number.) The Kids Fly Free program is an annual event that invites children ages 8-17 to ride in a small plane with a private pilot. This time, one mom of a special needs child and one reporter who easily gets motion sick also got to tag along.
“We ended up with 170 kids registering,” said Dutcher. “Normally, we’ll have about 80% of that [who show up], because kids were registered two or three months ago, and all the suddetn they have an important soccer game or a wedding to go to and they can’t make it, but that’s OK.” Ronan Zollars, 9, of Waverly was one who made it, even though he didn’t know he was going to.
He was waiting for his flight, which would be his first time on a plane. “I think it might be pretty fun,” he said, and indicated that he was excited about it. His mom, Sara, said they had stepped out of the waiting line so they could watch some of the planes go up and see what they looked like.
“His sister has been on airplanes before but he’s never had an opportunity. Dad actually signed him up,” she said. “We came out to look at the planes and then surprised him that he was going to get to ride in one of them.
” “I was also surprised that I was going to go without my parents,” Ronan said, referring to the restriction that, except in special cases, children flew without any adult but the pilot. Even with just children, pilots would be making many flights to get everyone in the air. Dutcher, for example, expected to make around 10 ascents before he finished up.
Orion Lentz, 11, of Sumner had just returned from a flight with two other young people. “My brother was flying it,” he said. “My brother didn’t do takeoff.
Our pilot did. Aiden started flying it, and he was kind of terrible because we were going up and down. We were going up and down, and me and Carter just looked at each other and said, ‘That was not good.
’” But, Orion said, it got better. He said the flight was fun, he’s glad he did it, and he’d like to do it again someday. Blake Kruse, 8, from Waverly was waiting to fly.
He had been in a plane before, but it was a jet that took him to Florida. He said he was excited about his upcoming plane ride, even though he didn’t expect it to be very different from his commercial flight. He may have been wrong about that, however, at least based on my experience.
I went to the airport simply to cover the story of children flying but soon got pulled into becoming part of it. Dutcher was set to take up a special child and his parent. Elijah Leonard, 17, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was in a wheelchair, accompanied by his mother, Kristi Ayres.
They would fly in Dutcher’s four-seater and would need to sit in the back, so that Elijah wouldn’t play with the electronics. That left the co-pilot seat empty. And that’s where Dutcher talked me—and my crazy-sensitive, motion-sick system—into riding along.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured me. “It’ll be a little bumpy, but that’s OK.” I sighed, wishing that mind-over-matter were that effective but knowing I can get nauseated in an elevator.
Elijah, however, was excited in the second row of seats. His mom, Kristi Ayres, shared that it was his first time in a small plane. “I want to drive the plane,” Elijah said as we buckled up.
“I want to touch the steering wheel.” Dutcher explained that his 1977 Cessna 172 is well maintained, has two GPS systems, seven different radios and a plane collision avoidance system. He spoke on the radio and starting taxiing.
“Go ahead,” he told another pilot, whose plane was ready to go right before ours. “We’ll be number two behind you.” He confirmed with the control tower that there was enough time for two departures before any planes needed to land, and he then turned his plane east to drive down the runway before getting into position for takeoff.
“What we’re doing now is backtaxiing, because they don’t have a separate taxiway for this airport,” he said. The plane in front of us turned off to a circular turnaround area, and then we did, too. Dutcher again spoke on the radio.
“Mike, do we have time for two airplanes to take off?” Yes, there was plenty of time. The plane before us started racing down the runway into the wind. “We’ll run an engine check first of all,” Dutcher said.
He checked a couple of things. “Perfect..
.. Perfect.
...
Waverly Young Eagles, Suzie Too departing runway 2-9.” From the back seat, Kristi talked to Elijah: “Mommy’s never been on a little plane, either.” Dutcher indicated he and I should strap on shoulder harnesses, and then he started accelerating down the runway.
Shortly after we passed the crowds awaiting their turns, we had liftoff. As the plane gained altitude, it felt like it was slipping and sliding in the air. “It’ll be a little bumpy going up,” Dutcher said.
“Go with the bumps! We’ll try to get up and get some smooth air up here.” We were 500 feet above the ground and climbing 400 feet a minute. Dutcher kept an eye on the instrument panel.
“This is the altimeter. This is our rate of speed. Our magnetic compass,” he said.
“I’m watching all the instruments.” Within two minutes of takeoff, I could feel my motion sickness kicking in. “If you make a mess of my airplane, your mother is going to have to come and clean it up,” Dutcher joked.
In spite of the close confines of the cabin, we had to shout to each other to be heard over the noise of the engine, but it wasn’t painfully loud. Other than the wind, it was a picture-perfect day for flying. Dutcher pointed toward the north.
“Over there on the right-hand side are the windmills by Charles City,” he said. He checked in with Elijah and Kristi. “How we doing back there? Is it OK?” “We’re doing all right,” she said.
“We should have some smooth air right about here,” he said, and it did seem that the plane evened out. “We’re at 2,700 feet or 1,700 above the ground at this point. Clarksville is straight ahead of us.
” He said we wanted to stay above the turbulence that was around 2,400 feet. “It’s ground-effect turbulence,” he said. “The dark ground is heating up and the air is rising.
On the light-colored ground, like on the fields over here, the wind is moving in different directions. We’re going to have light turbulence all the way, because it’s all the way up there. We’ll just have to accept it and go with it.
” As we approached Clarksville just minutes after taking off, Dutcher prepared for the first turn. “I’m going to give you a beautiful shot of Clarksville,” he said. He informed the ground crew on the radio that we were turning at Clarksville and heading south.
I noted on my voice recorder a little more than 8 minutes into our flight, “still bouncing around with the turbulence, feeling a little sick here.” “We just passed the ethanol plant and the railroad facility [by Shell Rock],” Dutcher said. “I’ll make a turn right here.
” This was the second turn of our big triangular flight route. It was time to head back toward Waverly. Dutcher indicated to the south.
“That is the UNI-Dome right there,” he said. “And it’s clear another 40 miles from there. I’ve been able to see the UNI-Dome 60-80 miles out from Waterloo.
” He checked an instrument. “Right now we’re doing 135 miles an hour up here.” Again he asked how things were going in the back seat, asking whether they were having a good time.
I looked back and saw Elijah grinning. “He’s smiling,” I told Dutcher. “He’s very excited to get on the ground so he can touch the steering wheel,” his mother said.
The green fields of Iowa spread out beneath us, with the Shell Rock and Cedar Rivers carving their way through them. “From up here, you notice how flat Iowa is,” Dutcher said. “On the ground you seem to have all kinds of little hills, but up in the air, everything in Iowa’s relatively flat.
” He pointed out the difference in corn fields and soy bean fields from the air. “First of all, the taller fields are the cornfields, and they’re starting to tassel, so they have a gold-ish cast on top of them this time of the year.” He may have noticed that I was pretty quiet in my seat.
He slanted me a glance. “So you’re not getting airsick, right?” “Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’m not going to throw up.
” At least, I never had, yet. There was a haze in the sky from Western forest fires. “Sometimes it’s thick enough that you can actually smell it up in the air,” Dutcher said.
“Today you can see it.” We approached the south side of Waverly. “We’re going to have some fantastic pictures of Waverly once we make our turns in,” he said.
It sounded as if the plane noise started to quiet. “We slow the airplane a little bit,” he said. Our first turn was by Walmart.
We were now heading toward the water tower on the east side of Waverly. “We’ve got a plane directly in front of us. We’re going to follow that.
I’ve been watching him,” Dutcher said. Soon he was on the radio again. “Waverly Young Eagles Project, Suzie Too over the water tower inbound.
Runway 2-9.” We flew over downtown Waverly with the river, the Bremer Avenue bridge and the Rail Tail bridge all clear before us. St.
Paul’s Church and the Nestle facility were both easy to see along the river. “Currently we’re 800 feet above the ground, coming in on a 2-mile approach to runway 2-9, Waverly.” We flew over northwest Waverly, over the Jadestone Addition.
“The lane is right in front of us,” Dutcher said. “We’re 500 feet above the ground.” Turbulence buffeted the plane on our landing.
I swallowed hard, breathed carefully and reminded myself that I didn’t throw up from the nausea. And I didn’t. Despite feeling sick, I was glad I had been on the flight, that I’d seen the Young Eagles program up close, even though I was no spring chicken.
Dutcher continued his landing routine. “Put out a little bit of flaps. Here we go.
” The flaps squeaked, and the plane again slid around in the air. “Over the power wires, and now on our approach to the runway.” With approximately 3,000 flights over 40 years of flying planes, Dutcher stayed completely calm and in control through it all.
In the back seat, Elijah saw that we were close to landing. “Bye, air! Bye, sky!” he said, then repeated the farewell a couple times. Once we’d taxied over to the buildings and stopped, Elijah had his chance to sit up front and touch the steering wheel.
“You’d make a great pilot,” Dutcher told him. Then he turned to Kristi. “It has been a pleasure.
”.
