Each summer Delta and the Organization of Black Airline Pilots (OBAP) invite more than seventy students to attend the Aviation Career Education (ACE) Academy in Atlanta. During the two annual week long sessions, ACE campers take field trips to different aviation facilities, including tours of World Headquarters and the Atlanta airport, and they hear from a variety of guest speakers.
Today we went to Warner Robins Air Force Base in southern Georgia. It was a long ride down there, but it was well worth it. For the first part, we got to walk around and see the museum by ourselves or with friends. It was sort of like giving ourselves a self guided tour. With plenty to see, I first hit the World War 2 exhibit, where there were countless artifacts pertaining to the war. Something that interested me was on the second level of the museum, where there were many hand carved aircraft models. You could easily tell the distinction between different planes and helicopters used in previous years of the military.
Probably the best part of the self guided tour was when I got to the century of flight, which was one of the hangers at the museum. This hanger had several well known aircraft, such as the SR-71 and MiG 17 Fresco. Also there was one of the aircraft that I hope to fly in the future, the F-16 fighting falcon. This was a new exhibit was very special because their F-16 had been used by the Thunderbirds in actual flight demonstrations.
The second and last part of the day was going on to mission quest. I had been to Warner Robins Museum before, but I had never been to mission quest, so I didn’t really know what to expect. It turned out that mission quest was pretty much the flight simulators. I got the chance to go inside a simulator, equipped that was shaped like a cockpit and had all the bells and whistles. This experience was so much fun because I was getting to fly a F-15 Eagle alongside my classmates. We got to learn several things about flying and navigation, but mostly this experience taught me the need to communicate in life.
Olivia Fisher
Age 15
Yipsilanti, MI