Youth flying high in the Sky – ‘Tama Discovery Flight’ created history

We hear about young women and men learning to drive a car, how much do we hear about piloting a flight. Have we ever seen a non-profit organization set up flight training. You have to come to Atlanta to see such special and unique happenings. For the first time in history, Telugu Association of Metro Atlanta (TAMA), along with Augusta Flight School organized ‘Discovery Flight’ at the local Cherokee County Airport on October 28th and 29th. As there were only 16 slots for two days, TAMA has given opportunity to Youth, which shows that Youth is of primary importance to them. Similar to passenger flights getting overbooked, many people have shown interest. Those who applied early were given the chance.

Since it was the first time, many people did not understand, some thought it was a simulation, some thought it was a theory class. What Discovery Flight means is, pilot training for one hour under the guidance of a certified flight instructor, also known as first hour flight. Under the guidance of Augusta Flight School Samta Shetty and Nandi Shetty, instructor Akhil trained children between 10 to 20 years and took them to the skies. one of the Siblings or parents are allowed to accompany the trainee. The airport area is full of foothills, trees and beautiful fall colors, which made the journey even more beautiful. Popular Cessna 172 flight was used in this training, traveling at an altitude of about 3 to 4 thousand feet above sea level. This is Tama’s 23rd event in 2023. Will & Trust Grand Mela, Chess, Diwali and many more are going to happen in the coming days. For details visit www.tama.org or email info@tama.org.

An official flight log book was given to all the participants in the training. If anyone wants to continue training in future, they can join Second Hour Flight. It was a rare and special experience for everyone to go inside the airport, see the runway and the flights so closely. The children who participated said it was very thrilling, some said they would continue in the future. The joy of the elders has no bounds, they said TAMA is doing many such diverse programs and requested to do more. TAMA President Sairam Karumanchi, Technology Secretary Sunil Devarapalli, Community Secretary Satya Guthula felicitated airport staff, Nandi Shetty and Akhil. The airport staff said that it was the first time they were seeing such a program and was very good.

Akhil said that he usually trains people above 50 years and it is a great feeling to give such training to so many young people. Nandi Shetty said that no organization has done such a program till now, it is fabulous that Tama has come forward like this and specially congratulated Sairam for coming up with this idea and putting it into practice. Sairam concluded by thanking all those who had contributed to this unique and rare event, which ran for two days successfully.

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