Eagle Flight Squadron, Inc. at Eagle Academy Newark

Education and Discipline, Front and CenterEagle Flight Squadron is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization founded more than 35 years ago by Reverend Russell R. White. The program encourages youth to develop trade, educational, and manual skills related to aviation. Students are given the opportunity to develop their own wings, literally and figuratively. It helps many teens learn to fly and find careers in aviation.

The program is unique because it not only provides flight instruction, career development, social interaction, and a keen appreciation for discipline, but it also stresses dignity, honesty and integrity.

Hundreds of students have passed through the program which helps them raise their grades in school at the same time it gives them an opportunity to learn how to fly. Following admission qualification and testing to determine an appropriate class level, students as young as 11 years old take courses in public speaking, math, English, writing, and life skills. The “airside” of the program consists of courses that include primary flight, intermediate flight, cross-country navigation, flight systems, and flight simulation. While many students may enter the program with a “C” average, those grades typically increase by the end of the following semester. At the same time, the students are readied for their first solo by age 16 by undergoing ground school and flight instruction in Eagle Flight’s three Cessna aircraft, Snoopy, Snoopy II and Droopy.

Eagle Flight is not a military program but it does share certain qualities, such as an emphasis discipline, the ability to follow instructions and work as a team, and personal pride. Students advance by military rank and must undergo regular scrutiny of their uniforms and report cards.

Of the Eagle Flight Squadron’s students, 19 have gone on to Air Force academies, 37 are commercial pilots, 190 attended aviation schools such as Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire and Embry-Riddle in Florida, and 259 are working in aviation related positions.