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Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
AVIATION: Class
took field trip to
Madras museum
Continued from page 3
any aircraft — with flight
instructor Lansburgh in the
right seat coaching.
As they were lined up for
the Madras runway for land-
ing, Lansburgh told Beatty
to keep his hands on the con-
trol wheel and feel the way
things work on landing.
“All you gotta do is keep
it lined up on the runway and
let it down slowly once the
power is off,” Lansburgh
said.
Five years ago, Benny
and Julie Benson’s daugh-
ter Cammi took a Young
Eagles flight at Madras
Airport. Later, she got the
online ground school access
sponsored through EAA’s
Sporty’s Flight Shop. While
Julie was looking over her
shoulder, it occurred to her
that this program could be
used as a curriculum for a
class at Sisters High School,
at no cost to the school.
Benson didn’t know how
to start a class at the high
school, but met with fellow
pilot and high school teacher
Jon Renner. He liked the
idea, and added the class to
the SHS schedule with him
as the teacher. There were
seven students who signed
up for the first flight sci-
ence class. Renner taught the
class for two years before he
retired.
To put the flight time
into the SHS Flight Science
class, the Bensons purchased
a Cessna 172 airplane that
could be used for training,
and that was really the start
of Outlaw Aviation. Brian
Lansburgh, CFI, began
teaching SHS students in the
Outlaw 172, and stepped in
to teach the class at SHS for
a year when Renner retired.
The students’ flight
museum experience was all
that anyone could expect,
and more. Every aircraft in
the museum is airworthy and
can be rolled out the hanger
door, started up and with a
qualified pilot at the controls,
go off into the wild blue yon-
der. This was impressive to
the students who read the
information boards beside
the nine-ton Republic P-47
Thunderbolt of World War II
fame.
One big hit was the stu-
dents’ discovery of a World
War II U.S. Army Air Force
fire truck named “Outlaw.”
Everyone climbed aboard,
with aviation science teacher
Yeager in the cab and Monte
posing by the front fender.
And of course, the lusty art-
work on the noses of several
World War II aircraft caught
the attention of many of the
students.
It was a full day of fly-
ing and “hanger talk” for the
SHS Outlaw Aviation class,
with discussions of the roles
of the aircraft in the Erickson
Aircraft Museum had in the
long saga of the history of
aviation in the USA and the
exciting and heart-breaking
times of World War II.
As plane-pool pilot John
Dunlop pulled up on the
ramp, one of the students
who left his hefty Cessna
180 was Ryan Ilmberger, a
young man who already has
over 10 hours of flight time
— thanks to his dad who is
certified in just everything
that can fly, from fixed wing
to rotary wing.
Ryan’s mom, Lonnie, was
waiting for him, and as she
watched him walk up to her
she shared this thought:
“Aviation classes in the
high school? Wow! That was
our reaction when we were
looking for a high school for
our son, Ryan. We’re from
the San Francisco Bay Area
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
SHS sophomore Delsie McCrystal at the controls of Julie Benson’s Cessna
Skymaster with FAA certified flight instructor Brian Lansburgh looking on.
and the high schools there
were not the right place for
our son.
“We visited the school in
May and turned in the papers
for Sisters High School and
also Sisters Middle School
for our daughter, Alli, in
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