Aviation is the icebreaker
Aerobatics is what gets people’s attention. That is genuinely all it is doing here. It gets me a platform to stand on so I can talk about the things that actually move the needle.
I come to schools, youth programs, and aviation outreach days and I talk. About study habits. About drinking your water, because when you are dehydrated and you are wondering why it is getting dark at only 6G, it is because you are dehydrated. About being careful who you spend your time around, because if you’re sitting in a room with two fools, who’s going to be the third fool?
You are.
I am what the program made
I started flying at 16 and had my license at 17, through the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen’s Youth in Aviation Program. 2008 graduate.
Those are the exact two milestones a youth aviation program aims a kid at. I hit both of them because somebody decided I was worth a seat.
I have been teaching for a living for years, in two disciplines. Guitar and bass at Just Rock Enterprises, and aeronautics at Aviation Ed. Standing in front of young people and getting them to listen is not a new thing for me.
The first thing is that they are safe
“Whenever I’m working with anyone, whether I’m teaching music or work in aviation, I make sure that they are aware that they’re in a safe space, as in they’re safe to be vulnerable. I’m not going to laugh at them. I’ma laugh, but I’m not going to laugh at them. I’m not going to attackingly laugh at them. If laughter is happening, we’re laughing together. And if anything’s never not okay, tell me. You are safe to tell me that what I just laughed about wasn’t okay. So first of all, that baseline of safety is needed.”
Who I have done this with
- Legacy Flight Academy
- I joined their Eyes Above the Horizon youth outreach at Maryland Airport in June 2026. We flew kids that day.
- OBAP, the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals
- I went to my first convention in August 2026. I drove ten hours home from it and got a call from the son of an original Tuskegee Airman asking me to come speak to a group of young aspiring pilots. You can guess what I said.
- East Coast Chapter, Tuskegee Airmen
- The program I came up through. I still write for them.
Bring me to your young people
Schools, youth programs, aviation days, career days, scout groups, church groups. If you have young people and forty-five minutes, I will come talk to them.
Tell me who they are and how many, and we will work it out.
If you want to fund this
Every one of these talks costs something to get to. Fuel, hangar, travel, the airplane. Right now that comes out of my pocket.
If your business wants to put its name on the thing that puts a sixteen year old in a cockpit, that is a conversation I would like to have.