Volunteer pilots in the U.S. provide thousands of free flights a year. Instead of flying senseless to airports in the vicinity, having a coffee or a hamburger, and fly back home, rather make more meaningful flights: Flying patients for medical care, flying rescue animals to new homes, serving veterans, delivering relief supplies to disaster areas, helping to alleviate grief, inspire children, or illuminate environmental issues. Volunteer pilots change lives, and in the course of their service, their own lives are changed for the better.
Service to our country can come at a high price. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than a third (1.5 million) of the nearly 3.8 million men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces since September 2001 have a service-connected disability. The Veterans Airlift Command (VAC) was founded to help repay our debt to these heroes. VAC provides free, private air transportation to our nation’s combat-injured veterans for medical or other compassionate purposes through a national network of volunteer aircraft owners and pilots. VAC was founded by Walt Fricke, a decorated Army aviator who flew hundreds of missions as a combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
After a rocket exploded while his unit was prepping a landing zone, he spent six months in a hospital far from home, so he knows firsthand the difficulties that combat-wounded face. He was flown back to the U.S. on Veteran’s Day and delivered to a hospital in Fort Knox, Kentucky, 700 miles from home. His working-class family didn’t have the resources to fly out right away and spend time with him, so the wounded 20-year-old was left by himself to deal with the possibility of losing his leg and anxiety so bad he couldn’t eat. Fricke’s story had a happy ending: eventually, his family was able to come to visit him, he began to heal, his foot and leg were saved, and he went on to have a successful career at General Motors.
He talked to the Veteran’s Administration and started looking for military families that needed a ride. Then a friend challenged him to take the idea national, and VAC was born. Today, VAC has 2,700 volunteer pilots who have flown over 20,000 passengers in support of wounded veterans. VAC flights are 100% donated, mostly by pilots using their own planes, although some owners and businesses also donate the use of their aircraft. VAC missions often exceed 250 miles, so the organization looks for either multi-engine or high-performance single-engine aircraft that can seat at least 4 people. Volunteer pilots must have their IFR certification.
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About 30 million Americans live in medical deserts, meaning that they’re 200 or more miles away from the kinds of medical care they need. The volunteer pilots of PALS/ SkyHope provide free flights for medical patients from all walks of life. Since its founding in 2010, PALS pilots have donated over 27,000 flights, across more than 6 million miles, transporting patients for medical diagnosis or treatment, transporting family members to support a wounded veteran, delivering service dogs for patients in need, and supporting relief efforts for natural and manmade disasters.
Mark Hanson has been flying for PALS almost since he learned to fly. Flying had always been on his bucket list, but he was busy with his career, driving change in a very large company. Then, in 2008, the recession hit, and his company was managing itself, so he decided it was time to fly. He started flight lessons in 2009, completed his private license in 60 days, got his instrument rating in 30 days more, his multi-engine in 30 more, and completed his commercial license in 5 more months. By the end of the year, he had 350 hours of flight time and bought an airplane. The next thing Hanson needed was an excuse to go flying whenever he could. He was referred to a local Angel Flights organization, and from there to PALS.
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Pilots N Paws is a non-profit organization that thrives off generous donations from people like you! Every donation counts and helps us save the lives of innocent animals.
Volunteering with Pilots N Paws is easy. All you need is a plane, yours or one you can use, and a pilot’s license. You sign up on the website, and you can start flying animals. Pilots N Paws has some mission coordinators, but mostly volunteers connect and coordinate directly with other volunteers via the organization’s website. Each pilot typically flies one leg of what is often a four-leg mission. People can also volunteer to provide ground transportation or be an overnight host for an animal in transit.
Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it can be challenging. Different animals have different natures. On one flight you might get a cute, cuddly dog that’s perfectly happy and on another, you might get one that’s scared of flying and stressed. You’re always testing your skills and what you’re comfortable with.
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According to the FAA, there were an estimated 757,000 commercial and private pilot certificates in the U.S. held in 2022, and almost 500,000 people supporting aviation as navigators, mechanics, engineers, etc. These numbers have grown over the last decade, but as these people retire, where will future generations of pilots and other aviation professionals come from? Who will help transport passengers and cargo, fly rescue and relief missions, donate flights for good causes, or just share the joy of flying? Well, inspiring and launching that next generation is the mission of STEM Flights, a national non-profit that aims to inspire America’s youth to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and aviation careers through unique flight experiences.
STEM Flights is always looking for volunteer pilots, and almost any pilot with a VFR license and a plane can do it. Pilots are asked to donate 4 flights a year, and many pilots fly more. Flights are all in the daytime, and pilots only take students up if the weather is sunny and beautiful.
After the initial flight, students can participate in STEM Flight Following™, a program to guide them to STEM careers, with enrichment opportunities such as study, career resources, and scholarship information. Many of the STEM Flight Following information and opportunities are provided through partnerships with other organizations, including AOPA and NASA.
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When a natural disaster strikes a community, help can’t come too soon, to fill the needs, large and small. There are big organizations such as FEMA, the National Guard, and the American Red Cross to help meet the big needs such as medical care and rebuilding. The mission of pilots for Hope on Short Final is to meet the smaller yet vitally important needs of disaster victims, bringing relief supplies as soon as small planes can land on an airstrip.
Hope on Short Final is airlifting supplies to communities affected by weather disasters. Communities need supplies within hours of a disaster - Airlift Missions are the solution. There’s no lack of opportunity to help and it’s so much more meaningful than showing up to the airport to practice maneuvers. There’s nothing like flying for a purpose!
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A lot of volunteers are older pilots who now have both the time and money available to donate flights.
The sooner younger pilots know, the more they can look ahead to helping others someday. Even if the demands of family, work, time, and money don’t allow it today, they can be thinking ahead to the time when they can fly more and start giving back. Find more possibilities to make meaningful flights and help others who are not as blessed as you are: https://www.flyingmag.com/resources-aviation-charities/
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