A Kid’s-Eye View: Alaska Airlines Aviation Day — Yay!

Alaska Airlines Aviation Day is meant to inspire local youth to learn about the various career paths in the aviation industry. I have my own aviation TikTok, have flown on a B-29 superfortress, and go plane spotting whenever I can (even from my yard). I even just went to see the new Blue Angels documentary at an IMAX theater.

I didn’t think I could be more inspired about aviation.

But when I went to Aviation Day on June 1 at the Alaska Airlines Hangar, Flight Training Center, and The Hub in SeaTac, I found out I was wrong. Picture 250 volunteers throughout the area, all there to help others learn more about what they do. The event was for kids ages 11 to 18. And there were lots of us there, including kids from local groups, such as several Boys and Girls Clubs and schools.

Picture all of us taking airport tours; sitting in the cockpit of the flight simulator pilots use to train; learning what flight attendants, mechanics, and pilots do; and even about other aviation careers I hadn’t thought about, like marketing, coding, and working in the airport itself.

I wasn’t part of an official group. I was lucky enough to be toured around for some time by Alexa Rudin. She is the managing director of communications for Alaska Airlines. She answered my questions about Aviation Day and aviation in general. I asked her why they do aviation day. I found out it’s because they want to inspire the youth to follow careers in aviation, and show the variety of jobs available in the industry.

Most people when they think of aviation jobs would picture a pilot or a flight attendant. But I learned the range of jobs offered in aviation. Want to be a police officer? There’s a job for that in aviation. Want to be an engineer? That’s also a job in aviation.

We also got to take an “Aviation 101” course, led by two first officers of Alaska Airlines. We learned all about the basics, how wings produce lift, the anatomy of a small aircraft, the four forces of aviation, and much more. We watched videos on a normal landing and takeoff and got to learn about most types of common aircraft.

I even experienced a flight simulator. It had the full cockpit and all functioning buttons. We were set up to land in Sea-Tac from 3 miles out. But rather than it taking five minutes to get to the runway, it was more like 20 seconds! I didn’t realize how fast planes were. Before I knew it, I was nearing the runway. I pulled back a bit to “flare.” Flaring decreases speed, and assures that you land on your back gear, which can take most of the weight of a landing.

The throttle was set to idle, and I was on the ground. I pushed the front wheel down and used the rudder pedals (very similar looking and feeling to car pedals) to steer left and right when I was on the runway. We were still going very fast, and as we were nearing the end of the runway the instructor told me to turn on the brakes. (Again, very similar to car brakes.) We stopped on the runway and the simulator reset.

My dad gave it a go, too. Most of his landing was inspired by my beautiful landing (it was pretty firm, but the approach was great). He did wonderful. That is, until he hit the ground. He mixed up his steering and almost veered off the runway. He quickly figured it out, though, and was back on centerline.

I also got to sit in the real cockpits of Boeing and Embraer aircraft. I was surprised to see just how small these cockpits are. Even on the 737 MAX, the largest variant of the 737, it was very small. The tech of each aircraft was different, yet similar, if that makes sense. And I spoke with several pilots on the day, too.

When Carlos Zendejas, vice president of flight operations for Horizon Air, asked me if I wanted to be a pilot or a journalist, I told him a pilot, for sure.

At the end of the day, I spent a couple hours on the taxiway, doing one of my favorite things, plane spotting. I waved to each set of pilots as they taxied their massive planes. Each one was smiling. It seemed like everybody was smiling at Aviation Day. And so was I.  

This year’s event was sold out and I am sure next year’s will be, too, so register early. You can find details here.