Naples teenager soars to great heights with an experimental aircraft

Naples Airport is a location that many people are aware of but few have visited. It is located off Airport Pulling Road.

In addition to 11 local teenagers, it is home to independent aviation operations, according to a recent article by ABC7 Amanda Lojewski.

Through the Young Eagles program at the airport, which lets young people explore options to soar, Garret Sutton of Naples developed a passion of flying. “NYAP was advertised through the Young Eagles…then my mom actually signed me up, so thank you, Mom,” Sutton adds.

The chapter president of the Naples Youth Aviation Project, Joan Zaleski, and her husband Bob founded it. The pair constructed their own plane years ago, and now they work with children just like Sutton to build their* own plane–a Sling 2–again.

“It (the plane) came from Sling Aircraft, which is situated in South Africa. They sent it in cargo containers, shipped it to California, and then shipped it all the way here from California. We completed one wing and hung it on the wall; we also completed another wing and hanged it on the wall, according to Sutton.

The plane has now been finished after a little more than two years of construction. Sutton completed the procedure and now has a pilot’s license, which will be useful very soon. “I can still clearly recall pulling the bits out of the box, and now here I am flying this at 10,000 feet over my home. You are aware that it is absurd, and if there are any, there aren’t many Sling young builds.

But Luis Gimenez, another teen, is present in the middle of it all. When he was barely seven years old, his family took an aircraft from Venezuela to Naples, and that is when his enthusiasm for aviation truly took off–literally, “I just fell in love.” When I was flying here, it was like falling in love at first sight, he stated. He’s had more time to research aviation now that he’s been here for a while. “When I was ten years old, Joan, our lovely Joan, was here and she invited me to join this program. Can you even fathom how happy I was?

Piece by piece and year by year, the 11 adolescent engineers and builders grew up together.

Sutton says, “Nothing’s felt like this; you can just sit back and take it all in like we did this together,” as he surveys the jet he built. Gimenez continued, “I brag about it to everyone.”

It’s time to present now that the construction and test flight are complete. In July, Stutton, the Sling 2’s pilot, will fly it to Wisconsin. “We’ll be flying that from here all the way to Oshkosh, one of the biggest air shows probably in the world, to showcase it and show the people what we made,” the speaker said.

The original article can be found on ABC7

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