What does the average teenager do once he turns 17? Get into R-rated movies without parents? Take advantage of additional driving privileges? Donate blood? White Plains High School student, Austin Rivera might be planning to do all those things, but he hopes to have a rather atypical coming of age. On September 7, Austin will be eligible to take a written test, go for a check ride, and have a certified flight instructor sign off to grant him a full piloting license. Only one in every 500 Americans is a certified pilot.

Austin’s journey began in 2005 when his mother, then an office manager at White Plains High School, saw a squadron recruiting students and brought flyers home. The flyers were for the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program located in Poughkeepsie. “I said, ‘hey, this looks pretty cool’ and the rest is history,” Austin says. He joined the local CAP squadron in North Castle in November of that year. “At first I wasn’t really interested in flying, it was just the idea of a military-style program that grabbed me. After the first orientation flight I realized that [flying] was what I wanted to do.”   All CAP cadets in good standing are able to take the controls in a series of orientation flights, and some, like Austin, can take advantage of scholarships for flying lessons as well.

The Civil Air Patrol has often jokingly been referred to as “the best kept secret around.” CAP was founded in December 1941, one week before Pearl Harbor.  It has since played a significant role in homeland security, from spotting submarines off the Eastern seaboard during WWII to having the first planes up in the sky taking pictures of the 9/11 wreckage. CAP airplanes also serve as dummy targets for F16s used by the Air Force and it performs 95% of continental US inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force.

Under CAP guidance, Austin learned fundamentals such as signaling, checking weather, and talking to control avionics through a scenario-based program. During training, real-life flight situations are simulated. Instead of just flying in a practice area, cadets plan and execute a trip. Sometimes along the way there are “engine failures” and other difficulties and cadets must be able to effectively cope with the obstacles. Austin learns in this way with the help of CAP Captain and flight instructor Howard Kravitz. “It’s amazing how he can take someone who’s never flown before and turn him into one of the best pilots out there. He always provides constructive criticism and he brings a positive attitude to every flight,” Austin says of Capt Kravitz.

A cadet must have a minimum of 40 hours of solo flight time before he is eligible to go for a pilot’s license. Though Austin has not reached that requirement yet, he has taken many solo flights and is only a few hours away from reaching the mark.  Austin’s first solo came as a surprise. “Before we took off, Captain Kravitz got out of the plane and said ‘OK, take it, let’s get it done today.’ It was pretty shocking.” Austin made a short solo flight from Poughkeepsie to Orange County. That opportunity to solo, Austin says, was the most rewarding moment of his entire CAP experience.

The self-discipline required to devote regular time each day to one’s avocation eludes most of us, particularly at 5:30 each morning.   This is not so for White Plains resident Kevin Egan who, like an obsessed marathoner, rises each day at that hour in order to devote a solid and solitary 90 minutes to his passion – fiction writing. Egan, the author of four prior novels and several short stories, and past winner of the Washington Irving Book Award for Fiction, has recently penned his fifth novel entitled “Where It Lies,” published by St. Martin’s Minotaur.

The Civil Air Patrol celebrated the lengthy career of Lt. Col. Johnnie Pantanelli as a local leader of influence in the volunteer organization. Former cadets and dignitaries participated in a moving tribute to the White Plains resident, at the CAP headquarters at Westchester County Airport on May 29. The evening culminated in the renaming of the North Castle Composite Squadron, which Pantanelli has commanded since 1963. It is now known as the Lt Col Johnnie Pantanelli Composite Squadron.