One day at the end of June my mum was reading the newspaper and she showed me an article which she thought would interest me. It was entitled “Aviator of the Future Programme” and it said that the Galway Education Centre was seeking 12 school children to take part in the programme. I decided that I would enter because it sounded very exciting and because STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills are used. I was absolutely delighted when my dad received a phone call from the Galway Education Centre to tell him that I had been picked to go to Florida to take part in the “Aviator of the Future Programme”. At the first meeting we had together I met all of the other students who were chosen to take part and they were all really kind and they seemed to be just like me! That evening we learnt all about the National Flight Academy and what we would be doing when we went to Pensacola. A few weeks later we went on a trip to Shannon airport where we learnt the basics of flight and we practiced flying on a simulator and got a tour of the museum there. I felt that I got to know the other students very well that day.
The night before we left to go to the airport I was feeling nervous and excited I woke up at 4 am that morning so I could make it to Dublin airport at 6 am.I met with all the other students at Dublin airport. We were all dressed in our matching tracksuits and we took some pictures and said a quick goodbye to our parents there. It took a long time to check in and go through security and customs but we eventually made it and we had breakfast in the airport before we took off. The flight was 8 hours long and when we reached Atlanta everyone was tired and hungry. We had a 6 hour layover there and our next flight to Pensacola was only forty minutes long. We got a huge welcome from some of the members of the National Flight Academy when we arrived in Pensacola. They had a banner with ” Welcome to Pensacola Irish Ambassadors” written in green writing and an Irish and American flag. They gave each of us pink, gold and green beads which are worn by people in Pensacola. We got our luggage off the carousel and went outside to the minibus where we met Kathy who drove us to the National Flight Academy. She showed us that on the front of the building it said “Inter-National Flight Academy ” and that they had changed it in our honour! We felt very special! Chiefs Cody and Melody showed us to our rooms and then we headed to the mess deck for a pizza party. After that everyone felt very tired so we went to our staterooms for a well earned rest.
We awoke the next morning and went to breakfast in this nice diner near the National Flight Academy. All the food was really nice especially the pancakes! After our breakfast , back at the Flight Academy , everyone covered themselves in sun cream and we each received a blue wristband with an American flag on it so we would not get lost at the beach. We got into the van and drove to the beach which took about 20 minutes and when we arrived there we jumped straight into the pool. There was a large pool and a lazy river and a board walk down to the beach. On the beach the members from the Flight Academy had set up a tent and cooler boxes filled with nice cold drinks and cookies! We spent all day swimming in the sea and in the pool until we had to leave. When we got back in the van we drove to a gift shop on Pensacola beach where we spent some dollars and bought our families and friends some souvenirs. After this we went to the shopping mall! We had a great time looking through all the cool American shops and we had some lunch there also. We headed back to the Flight Academy in the afternoon and we had a barbecue on the mess deck. Every one enjoyed it. That night the 12 of us plus Chief Chrissy and Chief Lonex spent some time in the games room. We played cards and air hockey and we got to know the two Chiefs better. Every one was having such a great time that we didn’t even notice that it was 23:30 by the time we got to bed.
The next morning breakfast was at 09:30 and after that it was a very busy day! Children from around the States were arriving at different stages throughout the day and we all came together for lunch and a meeting in the mess deck with all the Chiefs. Chip ( the Captain ) talked to us about all the rules aboard Ambition and about what would be happening over the week. It all sounded very exciting and I could hardly wait to get started. We headed to the JIC (Joint Intelligence Centre) for the first time where we met IO Laton. She was very nice and she explained to us that she would be teaching us the theory of flight. She showed us how to find headings on a map, to find out how long it would take you to reach your destination and how much fuel you would need for your journey. You needed to have a lot of maths skills to be able to complete these tasks. Next we headed to Hangar bay 1 where we practised flying, landing and taking off from Ambition. After this we went to the JOC (Joint Operations Centre). Here we met OPSO O’Rear who we discovered is of Irish descent. He would be helping us to plan missions and to guide other pilots on headsets from the JOC. We helped the Raiders to fly by giving them headings and telling them to lower/higher their speed and altitude. After this every body was very hungry and we really enjoyed the dinner which was beef tips and rice. After dinner all 108 of us AXPs (Aviation Experiment Pilots) split up into our squadrons and spent some time with our chiefs. After a long tiring day everybody was ready for bed.
Our second day aboard Ambition started with and early alarm bell at 06:30. We all showered and got ready for the day and were down in the mess deck for breakfast at 07:30. It was great. We went to the Naval Aviation Museum and we received a brilliant tour of the whole building. We learnt about the ‘Blue Angels’ which is the Navy Flying Squad from Pensacola who would be doing a practice air show for us in two days time. We went to see a forty five minute movie about the ‘ Magic of Flight ‘ in an iMax theatre in the museum. It was a great experience to be able to feel and sound like you are in an aeroplane when you are sitting down in a cinema theatre! When we got back to the Flight Academy we had our lunch which was baked ziti which is a pasta bake in a red sauce. We all really enjoyed it. We arrived at the JIC after this where we were greeted by IO Laton who gave us a flight briefing , and after that we were in the Hangar Bay 1 flying our mission. We then went to the JOC and guided the Lancers on their flight and then it was time for dinner. After dinner we headed to the JIC where we went through another flight briefing and then we commanded another flight before bed. Altogether it was quite an exciting day and that was only day 2!
The next two days on Ambition were very busy and eventful. We went to Air Traffic Control and climbed to the top of the tower which has 177 steps in total and we learned all about the ATC , we also went to the Rescue Swimmer School. The following day we were lucky enough to see the Blue Angels perform. They were absolutely brilliant and everyone got lots of pictures of them. We had more JIC, JOC and flying also at the Flight Academy which was getting more difficult as the days went by but that just made everything more exciting. We even did some of our own formation flying and we also did a Tampa Bay Air Rally. We made lots of new friends in our staterooms and in our squadrons and they are all so nice and kind to us. We are all trying not to think about our final day aboard Ambition but it was coming closer and closer and we knew we would be so sad when it was all over.
Our final full day in the National Flight Academy started off early and as we were eating breakfast the screens in the mess deck showed us a news report saying that the cruise liner ‘Tropicale’ had crashed into an oil tanker named ‘Gulf Sunset’. Under the guidance of OPSO O’Rear and IO Laton we helped to put out fires on the cruise ship. Everything became more serious when we found out that OPSO O’Rear’s parents were aboard the cruise ship. Even though it was a simulation everything felt so real as we were flying our mission. After a full day of hard work saving critical patients and putting out fires finally, all of the 2317 passengers that were on the ship were saved and successfully brought back to land. There was great celebrations on Ambition that night and as a treat we had burgers and chips for dinner with brownies for dessert. We went to bed early that night so we would all be ready for Graduation the next day….
We had a bit of a sleep in on our Graduation morning the next day and breakfast was an hour later than usual. We all got dressed into our squadron T-shirts and we went over to the Naval Aviation Museum where we met Kate , Paddy and Maeve. We thank them so much for their hard work over the week. Without them we would not have had this brilliant opportunity. The graduation ceremony was very enjoyable , we each received a badge , a brooch , a photo of our squadron and a certificate. Congratulations to Ruadhri who won AXP of the week. He gave a speech and he did a wonderful job. After the ceremony we met the Vice Admiral Gerald Hoewing and he presented each of us with a medal. It was a great honour to receive this. We said goodbye to all of our new friends who have been so nice to us this past week. I know that I will keep in touch with them for a long time. After all the other AXPs had left we went back to the shopping mall to get some last minute shopping finished. We spent two hours there and then we went to a local baseball game. It was the Blue Wahoos from Pensacola against the Chatanooga Lookouts. Even though the Wahoos lost we had a great time looking through the gift shop and we even got to go on the stand and we were shown to the rest of the crowd on the big screen. It was so exciting. After the game had finished we went out onto the pitch and took some pictures before we went back to the Flight Academy to have our last sleep aboard Ambition.
The next morning we had Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast which is a type of American doughnut brand. Everyone really enjoyed it. We also tried almond milk which is Chief Lonex’s favourite treat. We played ninja and air hockey with Chief Chrissy all morning until we had to leave to go to the airport. We said goodbye to Kathy, Treasa, Chip and our Chiefs outside of the airport. We thanked them for making our week so special. We arrived back home in Dublin early on Sunday morning and we got a great welcome back from all of our parents and brothers and sisters. It was good to be home but I wished that we were still in sunny Pensacola!
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NFA Florida by Eve Sheridan
My Experience by Eoin Shimizu
“Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.” – Peter Seeger. (Musician, songwriter)
Over the last week I have had the privilege to learn what that actually means and it is very true.
The National Flight Academy (NFA) is an amazing journey of learning from start to finish at such an accelerated rate. Every day there’s something new to learn and new skills to master. There’s never a dull moment, never a time to be bored, always a new mission to be planned and executed. So let me share with you some of the highlights and experiences I had as an Irish AXP (Ambition eXperimental Pilot) participating in NFA’s incredible program.
One of the things that will always stand out in my mind is definitely the welcome we received from everyone. After almost 24 hours of travel from Galway to Pensacola it was wonderful to see some of the staff from the NFA standing outside the arrival doors of Pensacola International Airport waving flags and holding a huge banner welcoming us. When we arrived at the NFA there was nothing but awe from the whole group at the sheer size but to top it all there was a sign that had proudly been changed to read “INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT ACADEMY”! The team had really pulled out all the stops and gone out of their way to make sure that we got a memorable arrival to Pensacola and they certainly succeeded!
Once we had settled into our quarters on board Ambition I quickly forgot about the outside world as we set sail and were immersed into life as it would be on an aircraft carrier. It was amazing how realistic it was, every detail carefully designed to perfection from the grey narrow corridors and the sleeping quarters down to the water under the gangway and the sounds of aircraft taking off and landing all day long. Everything was as imagined and better, exceeding all hopes and expectations.
We started to carry out missions pretty soon after we got underway. First we needed to learn how to plan our mission flight plans, how to use the radars and radios in the Joint Operations Centre and finally we needed to learn how to fly the X-12 Triad aircraft. The amount we learnt in that first day was incredible! We had progressed from knowing almost nothing to being able plan, control, take off, fly a mission and land back on an aircraft carrier. Multiply that amount of information in a half day, by a week’s worth of time and you start to realise the sheer volume of new information we learnt! We got through things that would take a few weeks or even months in school, in a matter of days or hours! But that was just the theoretical side of things. During that week we learnt some of the most important skills that we’ll ever learn and use in our lives: skills like teamwork, leadership, delegating, assigning and sharing work, clear and concise communications, quick and innovative thinking, initiative, networking and most importantly friendship.
Over the course of the week I had the opportunity to work and become friends with so many amazing, talented and intelligent people. Each person had his or her own story to tell, each person bringing something unique to the squadrons. I’m sure that my fellow AXPs from both sides of the Atlantic will also agree that the friendships that were formed are the thing that I’ll never forget and cherish the most out of this experience. In a world where networking is so important, spending time with probably over 120 new total strangers gave us a chance to build up connections with people we may never have met otherwise. With each new friendship formed, another potential opportunity arises, an opportunity that mightn’t or couldn’t be possible without the support and friendship of these people. I know that I’ll definitely stay in touch with every one of my new friends and see where that friendship might lead me. Who knows, it might be that I was talking to the future President of a nation, a future General or Admiral or possibly the next Bill Gates this week! Whatever the future holds for these people, the friendships that have just started will never be forgotten.
On the subject of friendships and great people, of all the impressive things on board, the people were the most amazing. Every squadron of 12 AXPs was assigned a chief or rather the other way around. These chiefs are the most incredible people ever. Every one of them was always in a good mood, always patient while we learnt and worked, always there to help us. They were all great fun and kept all our spirits up all week long. I admire what they do and I hope that someday I’ll return and spend time as a chief for another group of young aviators. I also need to say that it wasn’t only the chiefs that were on the excellent team. There was also the Vice Admiral, the Captains, the Master Chief, Admin staff, the Intelligence and Operations officers, the technicians, the nurses, the catering staff and so many others that were working incredibly hard behind the scenes to make this experience possible. All of the wonderful team really pulled out all of the stops to make the experience one to remember. From the welcome to the emotional farewell, their hospitality and kindness was really incomparable to anything I’ve experienced before and was greatly appreciated by all.
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone we met (and also to those we didn’t) on this trip and to everyone who worked so hard to make this experience happen. Special thanks to VADM Hoewing, VADM Architzel, Kathy Denkler, Teresa Gurka, CAPT Chip, CAPT Miller, Master Chief Curley, all the Intelligence officers and all the Operations Officer, all the chiefs, and of course to Kate Murray, Paddy Clancy and Maeve Clancy for all of the work they put in to make the experience a reality for all the Irish AXPs. I know I’ll have left someone out but know that I thank those people equally; you know who you are yourself! It has been the experience of a lifetime.
My Ambition – by Christina Malone
The International Flight Academy was a perfect way to wake me up after months of relaxing and doing very little academic activities. But it was more than just a wakeup call; it was an experience of a life time. Everything from the fact it is based in sunny Pensacola, to the outstanding hospitality, to the amazing friends I encountered along the way, was awe inspiring.
The adventure started before we even set foot on an aeroplane, as we were invited to Shannon to learn about the theory of flight. We got taught about Isaac Newton’s laws and the four antagonistic forces that come into play on an aeroplane when it is airborne, which are thrust, drag, weight and lift. We also got a chance to test some flight simulators they have there. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and have been invited back again.
We also got to meet Enda Kenny and get our picture taken with him. While we were in Florida that picture appeared in the Connaught Tribune.
The expedition started at 2:30 AM Friday the 3/8/12. We made it to Dublin airport at 6:00 AM. Once there we all met up and after surviving security we finally boarded the plane. Eight hours later we found ourselves in Atlanta. In Atlanta we had a six-hour wait before our flight to Pensacola. When we arrived in Pensacola we found a welcome party awaiting us with banners and beads. We arrived at Ambition, which is a mock-up of an aircraft carrier, in a haze of tiredness, but tired as we were we could still appreciate the size of the building. Once out of the delightfully air-conditioned minivan, we were almost suffocated by the heat of the night.
Inside the Ambition, we were shown to our rooms where we deposited our bags and then went to the mess deck for a pizza party.
The next day we went to a beach resort, and had a brilliant time. That night the first of our fellow AXPs arrived in the form of two American brothers.
The next day yielded the arrival of the rest of our fellow Ambition eXperimental Pilots. We were introduced to the rest of our squadron and started learning the ropes in the JIC (Joint Intelligence Centre), the JOC (Joint Operations Centre) and the X-12 Triad simulators.
The next couple of days involved learning how to plan our flight in the JIC, directing air traffic in the JOC, testing the Triad in the simulators, learning about our next mission in the Ready Room, eating exquisite food and making exceptional friends. We learnt how to plan for, instruct and execute missions which included formation flying, a race, and rescuing 2000 plus unfortunate victims of a collision between a cruise liner and a container ship, which contained deadly chemicals which when combined with each other had the power to explode, intoxicate, dissolve flesh, cause cancer and potentially death. Fortunately we managed to save all on-board the cruise liner and all on-board the container ship.
As well as the missions, we got to visit the US Navy Museum, the lifeguard training school, the survival school, the Blue Angels air show and the control tower for the military airport.
I was disheartened when it came down to graduation wishing the experience could have prolonged for another week or so. We all graduated successfully and received our gold wings, medal and a certificate. After graduation we said our goodbyes to our squadron mates as they departed for home.
That evening we went to see the Blue Wahoo baseball team play the Chattanooga Lookouts. The Blue Wahoos lost but it was still fun to watch. We had a very relaxing time eating cracker jacks and candyfloss. At the end of the match we got to go down on the pitch and get our photo taken before we headed back to Ambition.
The next day we bid farewell to the Chiefs, Ambition and Florida. The flight home was uneventful but when we got home we were greeted by our family and friends. We said adieu to each other then headed home.
I would just like to say thank you to Kate, Maeve and Paddy for looking after and putting up with me.
Christina Malone
We’re back! Morning Ireland!
Paddy will be happy to be back on the left (the right side) of the road!
Flying the planes home
In the DC9-50 From Pensacola to Atlanta
In the A330-300 from Atlanta to Dublin
Goodbye Pensacola
Saying ‘Goodbye’ to Kathy Denkler! Thanks Kathy for everything!
Boarding DL1270 Pensacola to Atlanta
Paddy and Maeve lead the way
Slán Pensacola!
Our Journey Home
Today we woke up at 8am and an announcement was made at 9am to say that we were having Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast! It was delicious! After breakfast our new friend Brianna came over to say goodbye to us all. We played air hockey and ‘ninja’ with chief Chrissy all morning until we were told we had to leave to go to the airport.
We said goodbye to all of our new friends outside of the airport. Our flight to Atlanta took off at 14:30. We had a two hour layover there where we ate our lunch and our next flight to Dublin left at 18:00.
It was sad to say goodbye to all of our friends who have been so kind and helpful to us this past week. I hope that I can stay in touch with them and that I can meet them again some time.
I think I can safely say that our trip was a huge success. I enjoyed every minute of our journey and I really hope that I can go back to Pensacola some day.
-Eve Sheridan
Blue Wahoos vs Chattanooga Lookouts
What a night! We had a draw and Eoin was chosen to throw the first pitch at the Blue Wahoo game versus the Chattanooga Lookouts. He was representing the National Flight Academy.
The Irish Ambassadors were asked to stand on the dugout to cheer on the Wahoos at the end of the fifth inning!
Here is the whole group out on the baseball field at the end! What an honour!
Thanks to Kathy, Kevin, Teresa, Mark, Chip and Rob for organising such a special final night or us.
Eoin on the wind-up!!
Final day!
Today on our last day in the National Flight Academy was a day that all of us AXPs will never forget. To start the day we had our graduation ceremony in the Aviation Museum. Each squadron was called out one at a time by our chiefs. We all received a certificate, a squadron photo, a badge and a brooch. At the end of the ceremony all the Irish AXPs had a picture taken with the Vice Admiral, who gave each of us a medal which was a great honour.
After saying an emotional goodbye to our new friends, we headed to the mall for some last minute shopping! To finish off an amazing day we went to a local baseball game, the Pensacola Wahoos versus The Lookouts. It was a new and exciting experience and even though the Wahoos didn’t win, we had a great time living the real American life. We are very grateful to everyone at the National Flight Academy and to Kate, Paddy and Maeve also. We have had a brilliant time here and have learnt many new things and made numerous amounts of friends.
Emer Harte.
National Flight Academy Graduation
Chip Yarborough
Vice Admiral Gerry Hoewing
Vice Admiral Architzel
AXP of the Week; Ruaidhrí Bleeker from Galway, Ireland. Well done Ruaidhrí, we are all very proud of you and what a fantastic speech!
Chiefs and Facilitators
Vice Admiral Hoewing (Retired), Vice Admiral Architzel, Captain Kevin Miller, Chip Yarborough, Maeve Clancy, Kate Murray, Paddy Clancy and the Aviators of the Future from Galway Education Centre, Ireland.
With our hero, Kathy Denkler.
Master Chief Mark Curley
Aviator of the Future Programme 
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