Unforgettable AirVenture birthday

“I’m celebrating here at Oshkosh, and I celebrated by soloing a glider for the first time today,” Anderson said while two Lockheed Martin F–22 Raptors taxied to the runway at Wittman Regional Airport to perform in the July 24 opening day airshow at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin.

Anderson and her family are from Florida, and they had big plans for the start of AirVenture. They departed the show grounds early Monday morning in their Cessna 180, headed to the Chicago area for Sidney to solo an Alexander Schleicher ASK 21 glider. The moment had been almost two months in the making, and many things had to align to make it possible, from completing the training to getting her student pilot certificate the morning of her birthday, glider availability, and weather.

“This is a compilation of about 100 different miracles that had to happen all at once,” her father and flight instructor, Pat Anderson, said. Anderson and his wife, Carolina , who are both professors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, instructed Sidney. Sidney flew 10 glider flights a week for six weeks leading up to AirVenture. Her father endorsed her in the FAA Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA) system to get her student pilot certificate in the works. About a week and a half before AirVenture, Pat called AOPA to see if we could check on the status of the application. The news wasn’t good.

“I have to admit, Dad kind of screwed up as signing instructor on IACRA,” Pat confessed. The application hadn’t been successfully submitted to the FAA for processing.

AOPA Pilot Information Center Senior Aviation Technical Specialist Paul Feldmeyer and AOPA Vice President of Government Affairs Murray Huling stepped in to help. Huling contacted the FAA to help get the ball rolling. At midnight on the morning of July 24, the FAA emailed Sidney’s student pilot certificate and updated IACRA.

Another hurdle the family had to overcome was locating a glider, preferably the same model Sidney had trained in. They considered trailering the glider from Florida to Wisconsin but did some research and found Windy City Soaring Association at the Hinckley grass strip just west of Chicago’s Class B airspace.

“They were gracious enough to check me out to instruct her, which is a little unusual,” Anderson said. They trained at the airport the Friday before AirVenture to get her acclimated to the area.

On Monday morning, visibility was low at AirVenture because of smoke from the wildfires in Canada. However, visibility improved to 10 miles at Hinkley, enough for Anderson to safely solo. She and her dad completed two flights before he turned her loose.

Anderson said her solo was “a little scary at first, but it was fun.” An initial wave of panic dissipated when she focused on flying the glider. “I kind of forgot I was there alone and then it just started feeling like every other flight.” She enjoys catching thermals and soaring over her town.

Anderson is following in her mother’s footsteps. Carolina grew up in Colombia and soloed a glider over the Andes Mountains when she was 14. Her father, an airline pilot, taught her and was the tow plane pilot for her solo. (Sidney's younger sister Caroline Anderson wants to follow suit in a few years when she turns 14.)

In addition to encouraging their daughters in aviation, the proud parents focus on getting other youth involved. Pat works in experimental flight research and has flown and led a team of students to develop the first parallel hybrid electric airplane, the EcoEagle, that flew in NASA’s Green Flight Challenge in 2011 and has been involved in testing unleaded fuels. Carolina is a self-proclaimed “aviation nut” and introduces youth to aviation through programs and summer camps. She has also served on the AOPA Foundation’s High School Aviation STEM Curriculum steering committee for about eight years.

“I think that soaring and gliders is a great foundation,” for introducing youth to aviation, Carolina said.

The freshly soloed teen wants to become a fighter pilot and eventually work for NASA, also has a passion for sharing aviation with others. She is in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and will lead the aviation program next year, which will allow her to teach ground school to her fellow cadets. “I’m pretty excited about that.”

After Sidney’s solo, the family returned to AirVenture and snagged one of the last general aviation parking spots at the farthest reaches of the grounds, but it was a perfect spot to watch the airshow, with the Lockheed U–2 and F–22s performing overhead. Talk about a birthday bash at the world’s largest aviation celebration. The family had one more milestone planned for her big day: cutting her shirttail.