Take Flight

It’s been a busy quarter in the LHS hangar, out on the edge of the gridiron. The Take Flight class has been engrossed in assembling their airplane kit, under the watchful guidance of their mentors. For mentor Andy Gelston, it’s like coming full circle, as he built a small biplane, a Smith Miniplane, in his mentor’s workshop, and then built a small, all aluminum airplane, a Watson’s Windwagon, in his bedroom, during his high school days. While a mechanical engineering major at the University of Wisconsin, he earned his Airframe and Powerplant license at a nearby trade school. Aviation has been his lifelong passion and has placed him in contact with many aviators, worldwide. It’s a small community that has given him access to employment and other opportunities. He worked at NASA-Kennedy on a shuttle pad, prior to Challenger; restored antique planes in Ontario; maintained airliners and built a Lancair 320 in Santa Barbara, before transitioning to contracts management. After a few decades behind a desk, he’s now semi-retired and helps friends keep their small planes flying. His teaching history includes horseback riding, sailing, scuba diving, backwoods medicine, light plane maintenance, and now, Take Flight. Occasionally, during class, he’ll step back and take it all in, reveling in the enthusiasm, acumen, and rapid skill development of all fourteen students, both instructors, and the mentors. They learn so much from each other, and not just about how to properly assemble an airplane. Every aircraft aloft with someone aboard is life support equipment, and this RV-12is is going together with that in mind, and they’re also learning a lot about life, here in the wee white hangar.

For 25 years I worked at Fujifilm Dimatix (originally Spectra) on Etna Road. As such, I started as a Project Manager, then Applications Engineer, Manufacturing Engineering Manager, Technical Support Manager, and finally Product Manager. To do this I received my mechanical engineering degree from UVM and an MBA from Plymouth State. In 2021 I retired and now enjoy woodworking, boating/fishing, hockey, pickleball, mountain biking, and going for walks with my wife and dog. I also volunteer at the Senior Center doing Meals-on-Wheels, at the Lebanon Opera House as an usher, and now with LHS as a mentor to lots of bright students building a plane! I know very little about how planes go together, but I’m really enjoying learning and figuring it out together.

My name is Steve Bayes. I am retired and have lived with my wife, Cheryl, here in Lebanon for 10 years. What interested me in being a mentor for the Take Flight program was the combination of my technical background and my enjoyment in working with young people. I previously worked as a mechanical and controls engineer in various industries for some 35 years, although none of that experience was related to aircraft. Locally I have worked as an occasional substitute teacher in high and middle schools, mostly in the Hanover-Norwich school system. My hobbies include photography, hiking, mushroom identification, and bicycling.