Girl celebrates end of school by flying to Maine
By CHRIS COUNTS
JUST HOURS after the school year ended at Carmel
Middle School June 7 — and at a time when many of her
classmates were just getting started making plans for summer
vacation — 14-year-old Riley Speidel hopped on a motorized
glider and headed east, beginning a solo flight that would take
her 3,300 miles from Marina to Maine.
Nine days after takeoff, Speidel touched down in the most
northeasterly of states. Along the way, she was airborne for
29 hours but burned less than 100 gallons of gasoline — and
inspired more than a few future aviators.
While the trip was accomplished pretty quickly,
Speidel’s cross-country odyssey began two years ago.
“She and I thought about a plan for the trip two
years ago and started training,” her father, Jake Speidel,
a captain for United Airlines, told The Pine Cone. “She
put a lot of effort and study into it.”
Just old enough
While FAA rules require that the pilot of an airplane
be at least 16 years old, a glider pilot only needs to be
14, making it possible for Riley to fly by herself. The
youngster hopes to one day fly a regular airplane —
and eventually become a bush pilot flying small planes
in remote areas.
On his daughter’s final day of middle school, Speidel picked her up and drove straight to Marina Municipal Airport.
“She was airborne at 1:30 p.m.,” he recalled.
The glider that carried Riley weighs about 900
pounds and has 50-foot-long wings — much longer
than an airplane of the same size.
Fourteen-year-old Riley Speidel poses with the motorized glider that she piloted from Marina to Maine. During the 3,300-mile journey, she flew as high as
9,500 feet and burned less than 100 gallons of gasoline.
Note: I wasn't able to quote the photo of Riley and her motorized glider.
the next evening they rested in Apple Valley, which is in San
Bernardino County. Stops followed in Arizona, New Mexico,
Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. They stayed in motels along the
way, and Riley gave several talks and met with aviation youth
groups.
On the final day of her trip, Riley was aided by the weather
as she made it all the way from Ohio to Maine.
“We had 45-knot tailwinds the last day,” her father explained. “We timed it perfectly — the weather was horrible
the week before.”
The young pilot completed her journey two days earlier
than anticipated. They planned for bad weather but somehow
avoided it.
“We actually had an extra two days built into our schedule,
but we didn’t need them,” her dad said. “We fully expected to
GLIDER
From page 1A
get stopped for a couple days.”
When Riley did encounter high winds on her trip, her training kicked in.
“The Marina airport, where she trains, has a strong crosswind,” her father observed. “It really helped on the trip that
she was used to flying in them.”
While soaring high above the ground might seem like a
high-risk sport to many, Riley’s dad said he believes it’s safer
than some more conventional teenage activities. He noted that
Riley had a parachute when she was up in the air.
“My father, my mother and my sister are all pilots,” Speidel
added. “We’re all very comfortable with aviation. I would be
more concerned if she wanted to go on a road trip with friends
to L.A. on her 16th birthday — that’s more risky.”
end quote from front page of Carmel Pine Cone June 28th 2019 and page 15A of the same day.
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