FLYING HIGH IN FREEDOM DISABLED KIDS RIDE WITH VOLUNTEER PILOTS.

Byline: Sue Doyle

Staff Writer

PACOIMA -- A wheelchair user for life, Jose Rodriguez Jr. soared through the sky without one Saturday at an event offering free plane rides to disabled and ill children.

Volunteer pilots recruited by Challenge Air for Kids and Friends, a Texas-based nonprofit group, flew about 135 kids from across Los Angeles with parents and friends in four-seat airplanes on routes that mainly looped from the 184-acre Whiteman Airport in Pacoima to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Rodriguez, 14, who has cerebral palsy, described the flight with just one word: "awesome."

Not only did the Venice boy -- a quadriplegic who has no control over his limbs -- see the sights from high above, he also traded his wheelchair for a different seat for a while.

One of the plane's tiny seats held him tightly and secure. The trip brought the teenager precious feelings of freedom, said his father, Jose Rodriguez.

Challenge Air helps disabled children fly -- and sometimes steer the planes themselves -- 16 times a year at events across the country. It was begun by Rick Amber, a sports enthusiast and Navy fighter pilot who lost the use of his legs after crashing a plane on a combat mission while serving in Vietnam.

Amber, who died in 1997, launched the nonprofit group 14 years ago so every disabled person could see the world from a different point of view, said Lonna Gibson, West Coast director.

"It's self-esteem-building," said Gibson. "These kids go back to school and tell their friends that they flew a plane."

With 140 flights throughout the day and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" jamming from a deejay booth, kids ate hamburgers, sat in equipment from the Traveling Space Museum and learned about aviation. They went away with flight certificates and gold aviator wings to pin on their shirts.

Speaking through a Say it Sam device that talks for people who can't, Kelly Navarro said her first flight in a small plane was "out of this world." The 17-year-old from Torrance, who has cerebral palsy, also got a lesson about the plane's equipment from the pilot.

Blustery Santa Ana winds made for bumpy rides. Some parents were nervous, but not the kids, said Kathryn Presson, a volunteer pilot from Reseda.

"It tells you these kids are not easily intimidated," Presson said. "They've been through so much. So what are a few (spots of) turbulence?"

With their 13-year-old daughter, Charlene, who has Down syndrome, Eric and Tina Jan were thrilled to see the eighth-grader's sense of empowerment during the flight.

"She got to steer the plane left and right," said Tina Jan. "She was excited."

Saturday was the start of the program's operation out of Los Angeles. It will return in 2008 about the same time of year, Gibson said.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

818-713-3746

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) A 1948 Ryan Navion, above, piloted by volunteer David Swett of Valencia, gives a free plane ride during the Fly Day held by Challenge Air for Kids and Friends on Saturday. Accompanied by family and friends, about 135 disabled or seriously ill children got rides out of Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, and some even got to sit in the cockpit. Left, Charlene Jan, 13, of Hacienda Heights tries out the cockpit of a jet plane.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer