Minong youth goes to 'top gun'

MINONG — One of Lincoln Hailey’s favorite movies is “Top Gun.” And the Northwood School fifth grader got to go to “top gun” when he attended aviation camp earlier this summer.

Inspired by his older brother, Richard, who attended space camp last summer, Lincoln applied for a scholarship for the Aviation Challenge-Mach 1 in Huntsville, Ala., where the space camp is also located on the same site.

“When we were filling out my first and second choice … for my scholarship, Mom said aviation would kind of be my thing,” Lincoln said.

Lincoln and his brother are part of the Young Eagles, the local chapter which teaches youth how to fly.

After going through a three-step review process with a panel comprised of space camp alumni, staff and volunteers, he was graded on a 100-point system, and also created a mission patch and completed essays. He was awarded the scholarship, and his family traveled down to Alabama June 2-7.

His mother, Alicia, said aviation camp is more physical than space camp, almost like boot camp, whereas space camp is more technical. Everyone at camp had to respond with “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir.” They signed a form when they arrived saying that they would not be disruptive, whine, complain or do anything to “annoy others purposely.” They had to agree to be on their best behavior or risk getting sent home.

“We never had to sign a form like that for space camp,” Alicia said.

She added that after dropping the kids off, the leaders said, “Parents, you are dismissed.”

Lincoln said on their first day, they had to tell a story about themselves and then get a call sign based on that story. Because Lincoln is a baseball player and helped restore the Minong field, “and I was catcher,” Catcher became his call sign.

“It’s been all baseball, all summer,” Alicia said.

One of the boy’s call signs was Cheese. Lincoln said he thought it was funny because the boy loved cheese even though he’s not from Wisconsin.

“I said, ‘I can take you back to Wisconsin,’” he said.

Another camper didn’t have a story to tell, so that person’s call sign was No Story.

Monday, the group of youth did flight simulators, where they had to fly a plane and land in the Miami International Airport. Lincoln said if you crashed, “which I did,” you have to restart in the air.

“I liked going through the clouds,” he added.

Alicia said that they flew to Alabama this year as a family and her 4-year-old daughter, Auggie, loved it.

“I love water when we were flying over it,” Auggie said, as her mother laughed that she herself was not a fan of that.

Tuesday, they got to use the guns and do spawn killing, which is where you repeatedly kill an enemy plane, but Lincoln said if you shot right away, you would be kicked out, so you had to count by Mississippi before you fired.

Wednesday, they used the missiles and guns to lock their targets. Later, they did a mission in which they bombed enemy airports.

“I failed the first one,” Lincoln said.

Lincoln said they did the simulators once daily, and on Thursday they went to top gun. They had groups of Mach 1 (9- to 11-year-olds), Mach 2 (12- to 14-year-olds) and Mach 3 (15- to 18-year-olds). Lincoln was in Mach 1 and the teams did dogfights without missiles.

“I lasted two rounds,” he said.

The previous year, when the family visited his brother at space camp, Lincoln didn’t have as much luck, saying he crashed the space shuttle simulator 72 times.

One night, they had a mission in the Boy Scout Field on campus and “you didn’t have any assistance from adults,” he said.

Teams had to find a laser from an enemy plane getting ready to attack the base and meet up in an open field to disable it. Lincoln’s team was called Sidewinder, “as in the missile.”

Teams went into the woods and the adults were guards. If they looked into your eyes or saw you moving or heard you talking, you were captured. If you approached the guard from behind and tapped them on the back, they were dead. Almost half Lincoln’s team got captured. Lincoln didn’t, but he did take out two guards.

The teams had patrol and assistant leaders, security, which was Lincoln’s duty, medics and recon.

The patrolling mission was his favorite part, next to the simulators, except he ended up falling during the mission.

“I hit my knee on a rock and it was bleeding,” he said.

Another day, they had a crash rescue mission in the man-made lake on campus. Lincoln was the helicopter pilot who crashed the plane, and there was a photo taken of him looking mad when he learned his role.

The “planes” were lowered into the water and the teams got onto a raft to get out there and free the others.

“Guess who was the last one out? Me,” Lincoln said.

Other activities included survival classes in the woods to make fire and shelters and aircraft mechanics.

The dorms, or barracks, on campus were all named after aircraft carriers, and Lincoln’s was USS Independence. Lights out was 9:30 p.m., and if you were caught talking, you got disciplined. Lincoln’s dorm had the highest-ranking adult come in to yell at them, “which was not fun for me because I didn’t make a peep!” he said.

The camp has the actual F14 Tomcat right at the front gate from the movie “Top Gun.” Lincoln said when they drove by it on their way to meals, someone had to say, “All hail the mighty Tomcat,” and the others would repeat it.

“I’m excited for ‘Top Gun 3’,” Lincoln said.

The last day was graduation, and the campers got to meet former top gun and astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson and get his autograph.

“Richard got to thank him personally for receiving his 2023 scholarship from the Space Camp Hall of Fame, which Hoot Gibson is a part of,” Alicia said. “Hoot told him it’s incredibly hard to get that particular scholarship and that Richard should feel very proud of himself.”

Lincoln got to keep his green flight suite, just like Richard, who kept his blue suit.

On the flight from Minneapolis, Lincoln got to talk to the pilots. When they returned home Saturday, they went straight to Trego for the EAA Young Eagles flights and the boys went up in the air. Lincoln got to be in the front of the plane for the first time.

“Lincoln definitely came back with a wealth of knowledge about flight and it was really cool to see and listen to,” Alicia said.

Her son Henry wants to do aviation camp, too.

“Can I go when I’m that old?” asked Auggie.