Tenaya Middle School Aviation Club taking students to new heights

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A club at Tenaya Middle School in Northwest Fresno is taking students to new heights.

Cliff Mickelson teaches engineering and architecture.

But, once a week, during lunchtime, the focus shifts to the friendly skies with an Aviation Club.

"We started out with things like doing drones, we'd build model airplanes and we'd build even paper airplanes, take them outside and we'd discuss the difference about why does one paper plane fly farther than the other? This kind of stuff," Mickelson said.

Shortly after, those lessons really started taking off.

Mickelson discovered the Experimental Aviation Association.

It's an organization that, once a month, helps youth ages eight to 17 take their first ride in a small aircraft.

It's completely free, and Mickelson says it was life-changing for many students who had never been on a plane before.

"I noticed right away that the difference in the students before they went up and when they came back was day and night. Their whole outlook on the world changes," Mickelson said.

Alliana Robinson is a seventh-grade member in the Aviation Club.

"I wanted to join because I always wanted to fly an airplane," Robinson said.

This month, she took her second flight, riding co-pilot and getting to take the controls for a bit.

"I thought I'd like never get a chance to do it until I'm like 20 or something," Robinson said.

Trenton Mckay has become very familiar with the flights. He's taken seven rides so far.

"It's really just a fun and cool experience just to go fly up and experience what you get to do and see all of California," Mckay

The district's career technical education has also helped secure a computer for a flight simulator so students can practice in the classroom.

"The good thing about the flight simulator is you can fly anywhere in the world," Mckay said.

Both Alliana and Trenton hope to have aviation careers in the future.

Mickelson says that is the goal of this program: to make a difference in students' lives.

"And it's all about exposing the students to everything aviation and hopefully, you'll see students in 10 years that are actually in that field and have made it their life career," Mickelson said.

Each time the students go up in the sky, they're able to log those hours.

That's just one part of what they need to complete to obtain their pilot's license.

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