(Radio Iowa) – A series of events in Iowa this summer are designed to give kids between the ages of eight and 17 their first free airplane ride — and mentoring if they decide to train to be a private pilot. Jett Korver, president of the Sheldon Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, says the “Young Eagles” program launched in 1992. “The sole mission is to introduce and inspire kids in the world of aviation,” he says, “and as of today, 2,431,634 ‘Young Eagles’ have been flown since the beginning of the program.”

On Wednesday, starting a six p.m., Korver and another licensed pilot will be at Sheldon’s airport to meet with up to 24 kids who are interested in flying. “A parent or guardian does need to be with the youth to sign a waiver and once that’s done we kind of have a time of ‘ground school,’ if you will, where we kind of show them an aviation sectional and a map of kind of what route we’re going to fly,” Korver says, “and then we’ll go out and do a pre-flight inspection and have a 20 minute airplane ride after that.”

Forty-eight kids took their first flight during a similar event last summer in Sheldon. “I got interested in aviation because I took a ride with a local pilot and I kind of got the bug,” Korver says. “The Young Eagles program offers a lot more than just a free airplane ride.” Kids who sign up get access to online educational materials, plus the Experimental Aircraft Association will cover the cost of an initial flight lesson and the association will pay the fee for the F-A-A’s written test to obtain a private pilot’s license.

Over 130 kids are registered for a Young Eagles event Saturday at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids. There are Young Eagles program coordinators in 13 Iowa cities, at the following airports: Ankeny, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clarinda, Clear Lake, Davenport, Dubuque, Marshalltown, Muscatine, Rockwell City, Sheldon, Spencer and Waterloo.