DreamLaunchTemplate

A Passion for Flying

April 29, 2004 by kathleen Fordyce

Miami Herald

When he isn't flying, 20-year-old Jamail Larkins is doing the next best thing: He's talking about flying.

Larkins loves sharing his passion for the sky and, as the country's youngest air show pilot, he's a living example of how far aviation dedication can take people.

This weekend, he won't be performing, but he will be at the Air & Sea show as part of the Careers in Aviation team, talking to kids and tellin them how they can make their way into the cockpit, among other places.

Larkins, from Augusta, Ga., is a sophomore at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a spokesman for Careers in Aviation and a national spokesman for the EAA Vision of Eagles Program -- another way to promote jobs in the industry to youngsters. With all this going on, Larkins doesn't have much time for himself. But he said he doesn't mind.

He is on his way to a great career, and he says he owes it all to a volunteer much like himself.

When he was 12, a volunteer for Experimental Aircraft Association Young Eagles program took Larkins on his first ride in the cockpit of a plane.

By the time he turned 14, he had his student pilot's license in Canada and at age 16, he did his first solo flight. A year later, he earned his private pilot's license in the United States. Also at age 16, he started volunteering for Careers in Aviation. He met one of the members of Careers at an air show in Georgia and he was asked whether he would help spread the work about the opportunities available in the aviation field. Larkins said he couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Right now, Larkins is working on a 20-city tour, called the DreamLaunch
Tour,which started in January. In February, he visited Cutler Ridge
Middle School in Miami-Dade.