And yes, you could make the argument that she's at an advantage due to her parents support, both phsyically/emotionally and financially...but it still speaks volumes that she'd take advantage of that support to better herself to meet her goals. Frankly, there's tons of kids who have that kind of financial and family...ial backing, who never take advantage of it (ever seen "my super sweet 16"? That show puts me closer to a homicidal rampage than anything else). Good for her.

That was my point about her. Sure, not many kids have the money to take flying lessons or build an airplane but there are a lot who have everything handed to them and still don't do anything. This girl did something amazing, IMO. She even analyzed certain aspects of the design such as the incidence of the horizontal stabilizer and came up with a modification that the plane's designer approved. Pretty impressive.

There are some good kids out there. A coworker's daughter (Julie) is a case in point. She's a high school senior this year that has a scholarship to Embry-Riddle to study physics. Julie also has an ROTC scholarship, plays cello in the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, and participates in athletics. She'll be attending a leadership course at the Air Force Academy next week. Julie also wants to work on spacecraft design. I gave her a ride in my plane and let her take the controls. I'm always hoping to influence another potential pilot.