thebattalion ● wednesday,
september 15, 2010
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Above Aggieland
Flying Aggies offers lessons to earn pilot’s licenses More info
Katie White The Battalion
For some students, the best place to be on campus is above it. The Flying Aggies provide affordable lessons and partownership of five aircraft to A&M students and nonstudents who join. Percy Leucke, who graduated in May with a degree in industrial distribution, joined the Flying Aggies to earn his pilot’s license. “I have aspirations to be a pilot in the military and having my private pilot’s license will help my chances achieving that goal,” he said. Leucke said he joined the club because of the great rates. “I would not be getting my license in a few weeks without the Flying Aggies.” Club president Brandon Erwin, a senior industrial engineering major, said: “joining the club and paying dues is cheaper than renting a plane to fly anywhere else.”
◗ For more information about the club, visit http://www. flyingaggies.org. “Instructors will take flying students up for one-on-one lessons. It can take anywhere from three months to a couple of years to get a license,” Erwin said. He said most members do not join to receive a pilot’s license, but to fly airplanes for an inexpensive price. “When you pay dues of $40 per month, you are part-owner of five aircraft that the club owns,” Erwin said. When the club began, it provided services to A&M faculty; now anyone may join. Andy Hampton, a sophomore computer science major and member coordinator of the Flying Aggies, said the club consists of approximately 140 members. “Only about a third of our members actively fly, while members with an inactive status pay $10 a month to go up in the air with other pilots, but not to fly the planes,” Hampton said.
Former student, NASA spokesman to visit A&M Victoria Daugherty
Special to The Battalion Outer space will meet College Station Thursday when Josh Byerly, class of 1999, public affairs officer and spokesman for NASA, visits communication classes. Based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Byerly is the voice of Mission Control, providing commentary during space shuttle and International Space Station missions. Starting his undergrad as a pre-medical student, Byerly did not plan to be the voice of Mis-
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sion Control for NASA. He said he explored many career paths in his life before reaching his profession. “I want everyone to realize that regardless of how planned out you think your career is going to be, it most likely will end up in the most unpredictable and unplanned place that you can imagine. That’s why it is important to be flexible, open-minded and to take advantage of every portunity that you can,” Byerly said. See NASA on page 4
Photo illustrations by Sam Smith — THE BATTALION
Luke Luecke, class of 2010, and Stevent Maple, fourth year vet student, are members of Flying Aggies.
Borlaug series aims to ease world hunger Meagan O’Toole-Pitts
The Battalion For 5-year-old, 27-pound Hagirso, hunger is more than just an issue, said former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Roger Thurow. “His eyes were remarkable and frightening. They were deep black holes. There was no sign of playfulness and ambition, as you would see in a 5-year-old. There in those eyes I found my calling,” said Thurow, co-author of “Enough.” “What I saw infected my soul.”
Thurow led a discussion on world hunger Tuesday at Texas A&M as part of the first Borlaug Legacy Series. “My career changed at that moment. Hunger became the only story I cared about. There was only one story I wanted to write about,” Thurow said. “After years of wandering story to story as a foreign correspondent, I now wanted to settle and concentrate on one story … to take readers into the eyes of the starving.” See Hunger on page 4
9/14/10 9:17 PM