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Going for the
by Jim Fremont
Like so many young children, Frankie was enamored with airplanes from the very beginning. In fact, he had a couple large plastic airplane models as toys that were played with and repaired so many times that there was an unmistakable amount of scotch tape holding the bodies of these aircraft together. He would also fly his small fleet of die-cast airliners throughout the house, with a seriousness that just couldn’t be overlooked. As a result, various family members would eventually cater to his natural love of aviation by taking him to watch planes at either the North Las Vegas Airport or McCarran International Airport. Before long, somehow Frankie’s routine even included following the planes on the Flight Radar app and listening with the Live ATC app. In one instance, he even chose plane-watching at LAX over going to Disneyland! In addition to his love for aviation, Frankie also spent a considerable amount of time playing baseball and at one point, he was even receiving invitations to attend events with USA Baseball. On a couple of occasions, this even turned into the ideal combination – which for Frankie, involved getting on an airplane to go play baseball. Frankie was definitely living a dream, until at 14 years-old, he broke his elbow while throwing. Once things were healed up enough for everyday activities it was time to put that same drive and determination that had brought him success in baseball into another sort of activity. Aviation seemed like the obvious outlet, so Frankie and his parents began visiting local flight schools to see what opportunities might be
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available for someone his age. Thanks to some much appreciated advice Frankie learned that he was old enough to work towards soloing in a glider, so a new mission had been found. Unfortunately, the only glider club near Las Vegas was booked up and wasn’t taking new students. The best option became a glider port in Southern California, which involved a drive of nearly four hours each way. The family decided to give it a try and when Frankie immediately showed some natural stick and rudder skills, the decision was quickly made to continue. The travel involved certainly made the situation a challenge, but on 11/24/18, Frankie made his first solo glider flight—meaning he was on his own, with no instructor – while he was still 14 years old. For his Christmas gift that year, his parents got Frankie an orientation flight in a helicopter with a local business that offered helicopter tours as well as flight training in both rotary and fixed wing. Once again the
