With a second student-built aircraft complete and a third in the works, high school students in Marysville and Yuba City are gaining valuable experience in aviation careers, project management, and leadership.

David Lane and Jeffery Ebey oversee the project that is part of Tango Flight, a Texas-based nonprofit organization that provides materials, curriculum, tools, and mentor training. Several schools participate in the projects, Ebey said, including CORE Charter School and AeroSTEM Academy. Students from Yuba City High School as well as schools in Wheatland and Marysville also participated.

“The best part is when Dave and I are out flying with the kids after we finish the airplane, and I look over at them saying, you built this, you built this airplane,” Ebey said. “They have the biggest grin on their face that just brings joy to your heart, it really does.” 

Students who are selected for the project work on a Van’s RV series of home-built kit aircraft. Assembly is from the ground up and the work is done in a hangar at Yuba County Airport. The second and most recent aircraft, a Van’s RV-12iS, N502TF, was completed in June.

The team’s first aircraft, another RV-12, made its first flight in October 2019. This second project was delayed because of COVID and the need to relocate the shop twice, Lane said. He expects the third aircraft to be completed in about two years.

“It’s good to see them finish a project,” Lane said, noting that some students graduate before the project is complete.

Student Gabriella Zemko said the experience has built confidence in many of the students. Zemko graduated high school in May and said the lessons learned in the shop environment, mentorship, and opportunities the project provides will go beyond the classroom.

“It was really cool watching everybody just kind of bloom in that confidence, understanding what they’re doing and getting that confidence with the tools that they were using and just becoming a real team,” Zemko said. “That was my favorite part, just watching everyone come together.”

Working with other students and mentors in project management has been a big part of Zemko’s experience, she said. 

“I really appreciated project management and communicating with each other about the blueprints, getting to read them, and then actually make them into real life application,” she said. “So I think my biggest takeaway was really learning how to connect with other people and create something as crazy and amazing as this.” 

Brendan Kolb participated as a student on N502TF before returning as a mentor on the same airframe after he graduated high school. He said the skills he learned as a student carried over into helping teach the next generation.

“Oh, man, it was like none other,” Kolb said of the experience working to build the aircraft. “When you’re just working with your hands and getting to see your labor and your hard work in the air is just an experience like none other.”

Kolb thanked the Tango Flight program and CORE Charter School for the opportunity to gain skills and experiences that he says will carry over to any area of life.

Ebey said he hopes to keep the program rolling with one kit after another. The group sold their first RV-12 with the proceeds going to fund the program. This second RV-12iS will go to a new owner, organizers said.