Students from Weyauwega-Fremont High School in Wisconsin work together with Glasair Aviation employees to build a Sportsman aircraft at the company’s manufacturing facility in Arlington on June 22. Four students were selected to spend two weeks working with and learning from professional mechanics at Glasair as part of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s Aviation Design Challenge. (Ian Terry / The Herald)

Students from Weyauwega-Fremont High School in Wisconsin work together with Glasair Aviation employees to build a Sportsman aircraft at the company’s manufacturing facility in Arlington on June 22. Four students were selected to spend two weeks working with and learning from professional mechanics at Glasair as part of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s Aviation Design Challenge. (Ian Terry / The Herald)

A career-launching experience at Glasair in Arlington

ARLINGTON — Natasha Stemwedel held the rivet gun steady. Her eyes intently focused as she drove the rivet straight into the airplane’s polished metal wing.

Riveting on an airplane takes concentration. Lives depend on doing it right. That responsibility didn’t faze the 16-year-old.

“I really like working on the wings because you have to be very precise about everything,” she said.

That focus helped her and schoolmates win the Aviation Design Challenge, a national competition sponsored by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and Glasair, an Arlington-based small airplane maker. Competing teams have to modify a small airplane in a flight simulator to improve its performance for a short trip between two points. Whichever team’s plane performs best in the simulator, wins.

This year’s winning team is from Weyauwega-Fremont High School in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, about 25 miles west of Green Bay. Stemwedel and her teammates beat out nearly 80 competing teams to win a trip to Arlington to build a real airplane, a Glasair Sportsman.

The competition’s six-week program teaches hundreds of high school kids each year about the science and mechanics of flight. It also spurs broader interest in the industry — at least that is the hope of its backers. Aviation is an aging industry. The legions of engineers, mechanics and pilots who joined the industry in the 1960s and 1970s are retiring in droves, leaving many vacancies among the industry’s 1.1 million jobs, said Pete Bunce, GAMA’s president and chief executive.

The big question for the Aviation Design Challenge organizers is “how many schools can we get involved?” he said.

The annual competition started four years ago with 55 schools. Bunce and other organizers hope to have more than 100 schools involved in a few years.

Several former winners currently are working on aerospace-related college degrees, said Mark Van Tine, the former head of Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen.

Van Tine helps run the competition. He flew in from Colorado, where Jeppesen is based, in his own Glasair Sportsman built by the first winning team.

“The kids aren’t just handing tools,” he said. “They’re drilling holes, riveting, doing fabrication. They’re doing real work.”

Each task is clearly listed in order on dozens of pages of paper tacked to a wall in the Glasair hangar. Customers regularly come to Arlington to build a kit airplane in two weeks with help from company workers. Glasair’s process is set up so the customer does at least 51 percent of the assembly work — a requirement for federal certification as an amateur-built airplane.

“Two weeks is a very short amount of time to get everything done,” said Ryan Flickinger, who manages Glasair’s customer-build operations.

The airplane is inspected and approved to fly after two weeks. The student-built plane went through ground tests Friday. Flight tests and further fine-tuning come next. That process takes several weeks. The airplane won’t fly away until mid-September, he said.

Customers show up with a wide range of knowledge, Flickinger said. “Along the way, we’re teaching them the proper way to install a fire wall, how to bend cotter pins” and so on.

The Weyauwega-Fremont students had some experience when they arrived in mid-June. They are building their own small airplane, a Zenith CH 750, back in Wisconsin.

“We’re almost finished,” said Logan Feltz, 17. He’s worked on the Zenith since he was a freshman four years ago. The new graduate is headed to the University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point to study cytotechnology.

The Sportsman that Feltz and the other students are assembling belongs to Dennis Willows, an amateur pilot from Friday Harbor. The 75-year-old has been flying since 1965.

Why let a bunch of high school kids put your airplane together?

“They work hard and fast. They’re sharp,” he said.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Traffic idles while waiting for the lights to change along 33rd Avenue West on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood seeks solutions to Costco traffic boondoggle

Let’s take a look at the troublesome intersection of 33rd Avenue W and 30th Place W, as Lynnwood weighs options for better traffic flow.

A memorial with small gifts surrounded a utility pole with a photograph of Ariel Garcia at the corner of Alpine Drive and Vesper Drive ion Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Death of Everett boy, 4, spurs questions over lack of Amber Alert

Local police and court authorities were reluctant to address some key questions, when asked by a Daily Herald reporter this week.

The new Amazon fulfillment center under construction along 172nd Street NE in Arlington, just south of Arlington Municipal Airport. (Chuck Taylor / The Herald) 20210708
Frito-Lay leases massive building at Marysville business park

The company will move next door to Tesla and occupy a 300,0000-square-foot building at the Marysville business park.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
1 dead in motorcycle crash on Highway 522 in Maltby

Authorities didn’t have any immediate details about the crash that fully blocked the highway Friday afternoon.

A memorial with small gifts surrounded a utility pole with a photograph of Ariel Garcia at the corner of Alpine Drive and Vesper Drive ion Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett mom charged with first-degree murder in death of son, 4

On Friday, prosecutors charged Janet Garcia, 27, three weeks after Ariel Garcia went missing from an Everett apartment.

Dr. Mary Templeton (Photo provided by Lake Stevens School District)
Lake Stevens selects new school superintendent

Mary Templeton, who holds the top job in the Washougal School District, will take over from Ken Collins this summer.

A closed road at the Heather Lake Trail parking lot along the Mountain Loop Highway in Snohomish County, Washington on Wednesday, July 20, 2023. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mountain Loop Highway partially reopens Friday

Closed since December, part of the route to some of the region’s best hikes remains closed due to construction.

Emma Dilemma, a makeup artist and bikini barista for the last year and a half, serves a drink to a customer while dressed as Lily Munster Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, at XO Espresso on 41st Street in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
After long legal battle, Everett rewrites bikini barista dress code

Employees now have to follow the same lewd conduct laws as everyone else, after a judge ruled the old dress code unconstitutional.

The oldest known meteor shower, Lyrid, will be falling across the skies in mid- to late April 2024. (Photo courtesy of Pixabay)
Clouds to dampen Lyrid meteor shower views in Western Washington

Forecasters expect a storm will obstruct peak viewing Sunday. Locals’ best chance at viewing could be on the coast. Or east.

AquaSox's Travis Kuhn and Emerald's Ryan Jensen an hour after the game between the two teams on Sunday continue standing in salute to the National Anthem at Funko Field on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019 in Everett, Wash. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New AquaSox stadium downtown could cost up to $120M

That’s $40 million more than an earlier estimate. Alternatively, remodeling Funko Field could cost nearly $70 million.

Downtown Everett, looking east-southeast. (Chuck Taylor / The Herald) 20191022
5 key takeaways from hearing on Everett property tax increase

Next week, City Council members will narrow down the levy rates they may put to voters on the August ballot.

Everett police officers on the scene of a single-vehicle collision on Evergreen Way and Olivia Park Road Wednesday, July 5, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Photo provided by Everett Police Department)
Everett man gets 3 years for driving high on fentanyl, killing passenger

In July, Hunter Gidney crashed into a traffic pole on Evergreen Way. A passenger, Drew Hallam, died at the scene.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.