UNR Extension program lifts Moapa Valley teens to new heights
AVIATION
COURTESY PHOTOS
UNR-Extension’s 4-H Youth Aviation Club visits Perkins Field in Overton. The club is hosting an open house this weekend at the Overton airport, where youths age 8-17 will be able to take free flights in small airplanes.
UNR-Extension’s 4-H Youth Aviation Club visits Perkins Field in Overton. The club is hosting an open house this weekend at the Overton airport, where youths age 8-17 will be able to take free flights in small airplanes.
Talon Newsom is at the controls of a small aircraft with his mom and first passenger, Becca Newsom, at left. Talon Newsom, 19, is the first member of UNR-Extension’s 4-H Youth Aviation Club to earn a private pilot’s license.
Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español en la página 8.
Talon Newsom was just 15 when, guided by a professional instructor, he first took the controls of an airplane.
Now 19, the Moapa Valley teen has earned his certification to fly small aircraft solo — becoming the first pilot to achieve this milestone through a growing youth aviation program in rural Clark County.
Newsom is qualified to fly single-engine planes under 6,000 pounds with tricycle landing gear. He is now working on earning his instrument rating, which will allow him to fly in trickier, adverse weather conditions.
“It’s a different kind of experience being in control of the plane yourself,” said Newsom, who passed his exam to be a private pilot and took his first solo flight in May. “Even as a passenger, it’s just great, because, I mean, you could open the window, have the wind blowing in.
You can’t do that in a big plane.”
UNR Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Program in Moapa Valley launched a youth aviation club last fall to spark students’ interest in flight and related careers. It started in Logandale and has expanded to Mesquite, where UNR Extension keeps a flight simulator at its 4-H Teen Innovation Center. A second simulator will soon be housed at Moapa Valley High School.
This Saturday will be a banner day for the 4-H Youth Aviation Club, when its members and friends have an open house at the Overton airport to give children free flights in small planes, flown by certified pilots.
Newsom said his father bought him his first flight lesson a few years ago while on a family trip in Southern California.
He flew over the beach for an hour.
“I just loved every second of it after takeoff. I thought that was really fun,” he said. “(The instructor) had me kind of do the takeoff, just with pulling back on the yoke and lifting it off the ground.”
Newsom said he grew up across the road from Overton’s airport, Perkins Field. He watched planes take off every day, had family members who were former pilots and wanted to get in on the action — but being far from that first lesson in California, he didn’t know how to do that locally.
Coincidentally, pilot and Moapa Valley local Tim DeBerardinis wanted to nurture young people’s interest in flying and support services, such as communications, mechanics and administration. Also in 2021, he had an open house at Perkins Field that drew more than 125 young participants.
DeBerardinis noticed that kids in the small, tight-knit community about an hour northeast of Las Vegas had a real interest in flight, so, he said, he started thinking bigger.
He and other pilots launched a chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which has a youth program called Young Eagles. Then they teamed with the Perkins Field Flying Club, Moapa Valley High School and UNR Extension to create the 4-H Youth Aviation Club.
Newsom, a longtime 4-H member who also took advantage of the leadership and animal husbandry programming, was the aviation club’s first member. He works construction and is considering getting a commercial pilot’s license, maybe even flying for a major airline, in the future.
He doesn’t own a plane now but can rent them.
And as young as he is, certified pilots can be younger: The Federal Aviation Administration issues private pilot licenses to aviators as young as 17 and student pilot certificates as young as 16.
That’s about the age that most people begin driving cars, and those don’t go up and down in the air.
Chuck Crickmer is another local pilot who shares his time and resources to help kids soar. He has two planes for students to use — he’s teaching Newsom to get his instrument rating, or using only the instruments in the cockpit to navigate when clouds or other weather conditions take away visual references like the horizon.
Crickmer, a pilot since 1969, said flying on instruments-only is fairly intense, but Newsom is a quick yet thoughtful student.
The retired electrical engineer also enjoys taking younger kids on flights like the ones being offered at this weekend’s open house, and he said they enjoy it too.
“It’s rewarding to work with all of them,” he said. “I’m retired. My goal is to help young people get into aviation, be it flying, maintenance, whatever — that’s my goal in life right now.”
Saturday’s open house is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., weather permitting, at Perkins Field, 1110 Airport Road in Overton. Children ages 8-17 can ride with FAA-certified pilots. Admission is free. Register at bit. ly/4ndOuPm. hillary.davis@gmgvegas.com / 702- 990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun
Talon Newsom was just 15 when, guided by a professional instructor, he first took the controls of an airplane.
Now 19, the Moapa Valley teen has earned his certification to fly small aircraft solo — becoming the first pilot to achieve this milestone through a growing youth aviation program in rural Clark County.
Newsom is qualified to fly single-engine planes under 6,000 pounds with tricycle landing gear. He is now working on earning his instrument rating, which will allow him to fly in trickier, adverse weather conditions.
“It’s a different kind of experience being in control of the plane yourself,” said Newsom, who passed his exam to be a private pilot and took his first solo flight in May. “Even as a passenger, it’s just great, because, I mean, you could open the window, have the wind blowing in.
You can’t do that in a big plane.”
UNR Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Program in Moapa Valley launched a youth aviation club last fall to spark students’ interest in flight and related careers. It started in Logandale and has expanded to Mesquite, where UNR Extension keeps a flight simulator at its 4-H Teen Innovation Center. A second simulator will soon be housed at Moapa Valley High School.
This Saturday will be a banner day for the 4-H Youth Aviation Club, when its members and friends have an open house at the Overton airport to give children free flights in small planes, flown by certified pilots.
Newsom said his father bought him his first flight lesson a few years ago while on a family trip in Southern California.
He flew over the beach for an hour.
“I just loved every second of it after takeoff. I thought that was really fun,” he said. “(The instructor) had me kind of do the takeoff, just with pulling back on the yoke and lifting it off the ground.”
Newsom said he grew up across the road from Overton’s airport, Perkins Field. He watched planes take off every day, had family members who were former pilots and wanted to get in on the action — but being far from that first lesson in California, he didn’t know how to do that locally.
Coincidentally, pilot and Moapa Valley local Tim DeBerardinis wanted to nurture young people’s interest in flying and support services, such as communications, mechanics and administration. Also in 2021, he had an open house at Perkins Field that drew more than 125 young participants.
DeBerardinis noticed that kids in the small, tight-knit community about an hour northeast of Las Vegas had a real interest in flight, so, he said, he started thinking bigger.
He and other pilots launched a chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which has a youth program called Young Eagles. Then they teamed with the Perkins Field Flying Club, Moapa Valley High School and UNR Extension to create the 4-H Youth Aviation Club.
Newsom, a longtime 4-H member who also took advantage of the leadership and animal husbandry programming, was the aviation club’s first member. He works construction and is considering getting a commercial pilot’s license, maybe even flying for a major airline, in the future.
He doesn’t own a plane now but can rent them.
And as young as he is, certified pilots can be younger: The Federal Aviation Administration issues private pilot licenses to aviators as young as 17 and student pilot certificates as young as 16.
That’s about the age that most people begin driving cars, and those don’t go up and down in the air.
Chuck Crickmer is another local pilot who shares his time and resources to help kids soar. He has two planes for students to use — he’s teaching Newsom to get his instrument rating, or using only the instruments in the cockpit to navigate when clouds or other weather conditions take away visual references like the horizon.
Crickmer, a pilot since 1969, said flying on instruments-only is fairly intense, but Newsom is a quick yet thoughtful student.
The retired electrical engineer also enjoys taking younger kids on flights like the ones being offered at this weekend’s open house, and he said they enjoy it too.
“It’s rewarding to work with all of them,” he said. “I’m retired. My goal is to help young people get into aviation, be it flying, maintenance, whatever — that’s my goal in life right now.”
Saturday’s open house is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., weather permitting, at Perkins Field, 1110 Airport Road in Overton. Children ages 8-17 can ride with FAA-certified pilots. Admission is free. Register at bit. ly/4ndOuPm. hillary.davis@gmgvegas.com / 702- 990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun