To the editor:

Congratulations on your article on flight training through the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center and to those who established this program. It reminded me of 60 years ago. I was a high school boy who luckily got a job at the local airport/flying school. I pushed planes in and out of the hangar, washed them, pumped gas, checked oil and inspected the planes each day. The pay was $18 a week plus one hour of flying time with an instructor.

The rules I learned by caring for the aircraft on the ground also were learned in the air. My instructor taught me that there was a right and safe way to fly, and that was the only way to fly. As a teenager, I could scoff at what my teachers said, but the instructor and the aircraft got my attention.

After 50 years in ministry, some spent counseling youths and adults, I have concluded that my best teachers were my flight instructor and the Piper Cub. They changed my youthful bravado into a more humble and careful way of living. I have thought that if I were ever asked to start a program to help troubled youths, I would start a flying school.

Parents, when that 16-year-old boy wants a car or motorcycle, take him to the airport. Buy him flight instruction until the learns to fly. This will follow him all his life.

The Rev. FREDERICK SCHMUCKER, Cape Girardeau