RACINE - A few thousand feet above Racine, Katie Hanson and her sister Karissa got a one-of-a-kind lesson. The cramped cockpit of Tom Schuyler's Piper Cherokee was their classroom.

Katie, 12, and Karissa, 9, didn't expect to go flying Saturday morning. They were just supposed to drop off their older brother, Kaleb, at Batten International Airport for the Young Eagles program.

However, with a little coaxing, the two girls from Elkhorn were willing to overcome their nerves and squeeze into Schuyler's single-engine prop lane, Karissa in back, Katie in front.

The girls were part of a small group that showed up Saturday for the Young Eagles program put on monthly by EAA Chapter 838.

The monthly event isn't just about getting kids up in the air. Anyone who attends the Young Eagles program has to sit through an abbreviated flight school before getting to fly. It's a brief introduction to the science behind flying.

"We want to have an education portion so we can teach them why the plane flies. The idea is, they get more out of it if they have a sense of what's going on," said Eddy Huffman, who taught the flight school.

The Young Eagles program is an effort by local aviation enthusiasts to get young people interested in flying, organizers say. Katie and Karissa were perfect candidates. Young, a little apprehensive at first, but after their flight, they were hooked. Both of them were asking to go again.

From the air, the houses looked like Barbie doll houses and the cars looked like Barbie doll cars, Karissa said. The two girls couldn't wait to go to school Monday to tell their friends and classmates.

Ryan Breaker was once like the Hanson sisters. He was bitten by the aviation bug when he was about their age.

Breaker, 15, took his first flight about three years ago. Now he's what they call a "ramp rat."

Breaker, a freshman at Horlick High School, is now a member of the Explorer Post 218 sponsored by EAA Chapter 838 in

Racine.

There was flyable weather Saturday, which isn't always the case, said Huffman, a member of the local EAA chapter.

The conditions have to be just right, Huffman said, with good visibility and not too much wind.

"The first flight you don't want to be knocking them about a whole bunch," Huffman said.