Mitchell and Doherty High School students climbed into single-engine planes Wednesday morning for a smooth ride through a clear morning — flights that instructors hope will inspire a lifelong love of flying.

Doherty High School junior Erin Manchester was among 13 students who went flying with Falcon AeroLab instructors and she got the chance to steer the Cirrus, a four-seater plane. 

“I was not expecting it to be as easy as it was,” said Manchester, a student-leader with the Navy JROTC program, who learned her love of planes from her father. When she was younger the two would make paper airplanes and compete against each other for the best design. Now she hopes to fly F-16s. 

Falcon AeroLab works to inspire an interest in flight and aerospace careers in students starting as young as 6 years old, explained Sara Hurley, the chief operating officer of the small business. The instructors found that when they started with 12-year-olds many students already believed they were not good at math and science, so they started working with younger students to help change that narrative.

“When we can put them in an airplane, or we can put them near an airplane and talk about aviation, it’s so easy to talk about physics and math and all the things that they think are really hard to do,” she said.

Founder Mark Hyatt founded the organization after working as an Air Force fighter pilot and later in education, as president of the Classical Academy and in other roles.

“I just wanted to make sure lots of other children had the same opportunities that I had,” he said. 

Colorado’s thriving aerospace industry helped inspire Hyatt’s program because the state is home to the highest number of jobs per capita in that industry, he said. 

Late last year, the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade reported 2,000 aerospace businesses in Colorado employ about 55,000 people directly and 184,000 indirectly. 

But most of the workers in that industry are recruited from other states, Hyatt said, and he would like to see a more home-grown workforce.

He founded Falcon AeroLab nine years ago and at the time it was focused largely on the homeschool community. 

It has since expanded across Colorado and into other states, Hurley said.  The in-person program is expanding into Arizona and virtual programming is expanding into Utah, Montana, Kansas and Oregon. The company also hopes to expand into more school districts, to reach as many students as possible. 

Falcon AeroLab helps students pursue not only careers as pilots, but in mechanics, engineering and cyber security, Hurley said. 

“We really try to wrap our hands around all of aerospace,” she said, with programs focused on building planes and drones, and learning to produce 3-D models. 

This year, Falcon AeroLab instructors took over classes at Mitchell High School, where Giovanni Royer and John Bail-Lopez are learning to build quadcopter drones and a Rans S-12 plane. Both hope to work with their hands after school. Royer envisions a career as a plumber and Bail-Lopez plans to build cars. 

They said they enjoy the courses and found the instructors supportive and encouraging even when they make mistakes.

“I just like seeing how everything comes together,” Royer said. 

One of Falcon AeroLab’s earlier students, Kier Eastvold, was among the flight instructors welcoming the teenagers to the skies Wednesday. He started out as a homeschooled student who learned to love planes as he built a remote controlled plane and visited museums. 

He also received 10 to 12 hours of free flight time each year, which helped him earn his private pilot’s license before he graduated high school.

Working as an instructor, it was hard at first to hand over the controls, but now he is happy to allow beginners to take off or land.  

“It’s been a really big learning curve for me,” he said. 

Eastvold said he hopes to go on to work in a niche, such as aerial firefighting or an air service based in Alaska, at least for a short time.