EDUCATION
Riverwood High students take to the skies
BY BOB PEPALIS A handful of students fly high every year with the help of math teacher Alan Sohmer through the Riverwood High Flying Club. Adrian Boemanns, who serves as the club’s president, has been flying with simulators since he was six or sev-
hooked up to a Smart Board at Riverwood High. “The graphics on it are better than when I went to school 15 years ago with $50,000 technology,” Sohmer said. Students use this and flight simulators at home that are the real thing, he said, with all the gauges in the right positions. “When the stuThe Riverwood Flying Club uses a flight simulator program to learn about flying. (Special) dents get into playAdrian Boemanns sits in ing, they actually the pilot’s seat of a singleknow exactly what engine plane. (Special) flight simulator to practice skills before to do just from practicing it in the classthey go up and actually fly. room or at home,” Sohmer said. “Everybody thinks it’s hard. It’s actuHe has sponsored the flying club for en years old. He thought the flying club ally really easy to do,” Boemanns said, 13 years. He’s been teaching at Riverwood would be a fun thing to do. adding he hopes flying stays in his life. for 17 years and a teacher a total of 25 “I heard about it from my neighbor “Right now it’s just a hobby,” he said. years. who went there a few years before me,” But, he is in dual enrollment at Embry“Before I became a math teacher, I the high school junior said. Riddle Aeronautical University, a private wanted to fly fighter planes. The military He gets free flight experience and inuniversity based in Florida. told me to get a math or engineering destruction through the club. The club Another student helped Sohmer write gree,” Sohmer said. He earned the degree members watch videos produced by the a grant five years ago and built a combut couldn’t get into the military after he Cessna Aircraft Company. They use a puter to run a flight simulator that was got hurt. “And then I thought, ‘What am I gonna do with the math degree?’ And that’s how I kind of got into teaching,” Sohmer said. He planned on teaching and later switching to aviation. “That’s when I met my wife and we got married, and I borrowed a lot of money to go to flight school and I got my commercial license and CFI [certified flight instructor] license and instrument rating,” he said. Around that time, the minimum hours needed to become a commercial pilot changed. He had twins and didn’t want to be away from home, so he stuck with teaching. “But I really had a passion for aviation,” he said. He spoke to Riverwood’s principal at the time and asked to do an aviation program. His principal said he could as long as he did it for free. He started to tutor students, showing them videos and teaching them everything he could about aviation. If it was OK with their parents, he would take the students up in a plane. “I just got my certified flight instructor license, so I was able to take students up. And we’d go up to Gwinnett and fly around Lake Lanier or go to other airports,” Sohmer said. Sandy Springs Alpharetta He’s been doing it every year ever 6160 Roswell Road 3000 Summit Place, Suite 100 since. Some years he starts off with as Atlanta, GA 30328 Alpharetta, GA 30009 many as 35 students, though by the end (678) 396-4631 (678) 396-4651 of the year he might end up with 5 or 10. “I only fly if it’s absolutely safe like wind conditions and clouds and everything,” Sohmer said.
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AND PROUD OF IT. Now Open in Sandy Springs & Alpharetta
coastalstatesbank.com 20 DECEMBER 2021| REPORTER NEWSPAPERS
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