B Y J I L L W. TA L L M A N PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK DAHMS Learning to love aviation, one rivet at a time YOUNG BLOOD AT 7 O’CLOCK ON A JUNE MORNING—AN HOUR WHEN MANY teenagers on summer vacation still would be asleep—eight high school students form an attentive group around a Glasair Aviation employee. He’s about to give them their marching orders. “You’ll be drinking from a fire hose,” he tells them. While that phrase generally is reserved for type certificate training, it is just as appropriate here. The students will work long hours for the next two weeks riveting, drilling, and wiring. This is a story about eight teens who came to Washington state to build airplanes. It’s also a story of how they got there, and how many facets of general aviation collaborated to demonstrate that aviation can be the jumping-off point for a rewarding career as well as a path to excitement. VIDEO EXTRA Spend time with the Build A Plane crew in this online video. 74 | AOPA PILOT October 2013