The Littlest Pilot

Several months ago, I had the opportunity to sign Liam up for a program called Challenge Air. This group takes kids with disabilities up in small planes and allows them to fly! I was a little nervous about it and expected Rob to veto it. To my surprise, he was excited.

Up to two people can accompany the child in the plane, which presented a dilemma: who would it be? I wanted to do it. Rob wanted to do it. Zoe wanted to do it. Practically speaking, I had to think about the worst that could happen. Rob and I couldn't go and leave Zoe on the ground by herself in any event. If Zoe and one parent went up, the other parent could be left alone in the event of a disaster, which is unthinkable. Also unthinkable was sending the two kids up together.

I hit upon the idea of inviting my dear friend who is very sick with stomach cancer. When the big day arrived, however, he was too sick to go. I decided that my own stomach probably couldn't handle the turbulence and sent Rob.

Challenge Air makes the "fly day" into a big party with a bouncy house, a clown, face painting, music, food, etc. Dozens of committed volunteers make sure the day goes smoothly. We were lucky; Liam got called right before his scheduled time. Some kids had to wait two hours after their appointed times, due to a shortage of pilots.

Rob and Liam crawled into the small (and surprisingly ragged-looking) plane. Liam had to wear large headphones, which I knew could present a problem for him, but he kept them on until landing. Zoe and I waved until the plane was out of sight, then waited about 20 minutes for them to return. When I asked the pilot if Liam took control, he said, "Boy, did he! Some kids are afraid to touch the controls but your son had no problem." Apparently, the plane did a lot of bouncing around while Liam flew. We were all so excited for him, but like Liam often does, he took it all in stride. I've seen him much more worked up about seeing two poodles at the local shopping center.

I'm still glad we took him. "Do you think you might want to be a pilot?" I asked him later. "Could I be a pilot?" "Yes. You can be anything you want." "I will be a pilot then," he answered. He hasn't mentioned the experience since, unless we've brought it up. But maybe he will always remember the day he got to look down on the world far below him.