Sugar Valley Airport's Spirit of Aviation

Floor Speech

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the poem ``Impressions of a Pilot'' opens with the line: ``Flight is freedom in its purest form.''

How perfectly that captures the allure of sky and space for so many who dreamed to conquer that frontier. Freedom and flight are inextricably linked.

This past Saturday, many young North Carolinians got to experience that freedom in a brand new way at Davie County Sugar Valley Airport. What a joy it was to be there.

A dedicated team of volunteers at the airport hosted ``The Spirit of Aviation: The Next Generation'' to introduce local students to the many career and recreational opportunities available to them through aviation.

Children and teens from local counties spent the day exploring aircraft, trying their hand at flight simulators, listening to aviation innovators, and even taking flight themselves in ``young eagle'' flight expeditions.

Their faces were alight with excitement as they experimented with the physics of flight and felt the contagious enthusiasm of skilled aviators who, after years, still find freedom in the blue's high tide.

The Spirit of Aviation Day at Sugar Valley revealed to young people new career possibilities for their lives, and didn't just stoke the dream of aviation, but presented a step-by-step path students might take to see aviation dreams become a reality.

What stands out to me more than anything else is that this day of discovery and imagination was made possible by a community independently committed to encouraging the next generation of aerial pioneers--whether pilots, mechanics, or engineers.

Yes, the spirt of volunteerism and community service is alive and well in North Carolina. In fact, it is thriving; and every time I am home visiting nonprofits and meeting the people who make up their various support networks, I am proud of the Tar Heel State. The initiative and benevolent entrepreneurialism displayed by Carolinians contributes new chapters often to the collective record of American service.

The accomplishment of volunteers at the Sugar Valley Airport is just one example.

In 2010, a group of North Carolinians came together through Winston-Salem's nonprofit Human Service Alliance and bought the Sugar Valley Airport. Their hope was that the airport would facilitate the promotion of aviation, both as a sport and career field ripe with competitive jobs.

In 3 short years, with a dedicated team of volunteers supplying 100 percent of the vision, manpower, support, and direction, the airport has come to serve as a hub for flight enthusiasts and learning center for those considering the pursuit of pilot or mechanic work. In any given week, the airport may host Boy Scouts, civil air patrol cadets, experimental aviation enthusiasts, leading women pilots, and aviation ground school students.

North Carolinians take great pride in our ``first in flight'' distinction. It was on our Outer Banks that Wilbur and Orville Wright pushed the limits of gravity and completed history's first recorded controlled powered airplane flights.

With the commitment of the team at the Sugar Valley Airport, I can confidently say that our State, the home of Kitty Hawk, is intent on being the home of great aviators and pioneering aviation contributions for years to come.

Guidance and encouragement from Sugar Valley's seasoned pilots, mechanics, and generous volunteers will continue to open a new world of opportunity to children in North Carolina.

In this world above the clouds, our children are free to dream, free to soar, and free to conquer the wild blue yonder and much, much more.

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