Sharing the Spirit of the Flight

Warren Levin was 50 years-old when he looked up at the sky and made a decision: “I said, ‘I either have to learn to fly or I have to forget it.’ ”

“What’s stopping you?” his wife, Donna, asked.

Levin was flying within seven months.

Nearly 25 years later, a passion that took root when he was a boy propelled Levin to introduce about 800 would-be pilots to the world of aviation through the Young Eagles, an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) program that pairs curious kids, ages 8 to 17, with experienced pilots for a free flight.

Levin, 74, of Caledonia, also helps rescue animals with a nonprofit organization called Pilots N Paws. That is, he volunteers with kids and critters when he isn’t working at Menards.

“It’s a health club that I get paid for,” said Levin, who took a part-time job at the Oak Creek store after he retired from a career in information technology.

Five days a week, four hours a day, Levin stocks shelves.

It keeps him busy and puts fuel in his 1965 Cessna 172F, a single-engine, four-seater that Levin has carried him all over the country for years.

It’s the plane Levin uses every time he takes a wide-eyed kid up in the air for a Young Eagles’ flight.

“It’s fun,” said Levin, who likes to listen through the plane’s headset system as the kids gasp and gawk and mutter to themselves during the flight.

“I’ve heard things like, ‘Look how small things are!’ ‘Look how the cars look like ants!’ ‘How high are we?’ or ‘This is awesome!’” Levin said. “I’ve probably heard ‘awesome’ almost every time I’ve flown.”

Levin said he’s never had a bad passenger, but the most enthusiastic are the younger kids, the 10, 11 and 12 year olds who can really appreciate the experience but aren’t so jaded by the keep-it-cool attitude of adolescence to let it show.

“For the older kids, the ones who are teenagers, the one whose in the right seat – as long as he understands the rules of the game – I will let him fly,” Levin said. “I will give him instructions: right turns, left turn. But when I say, ‘It’s my plane,’ it’s my plane.”

At least five of the kids who have flown with Levin have gone on to get their pilot’s licenses. But he considers each flight a success.

“I know through the program that I got somebody excited,” Levin said.

For the last 18 months, Levin has worked with Pilots N Paws, a nationwide network of pilots who offer rescue flights, overnight foster care or shelter.

Levin’s first job was in southern Indiana, where he picked up Tessa, a pit bull from Birmingham, Ala., who was scheduled to be put down. Most recently, Levin flew a Siberian Huskie from Hannibal, Mo.

“Don’t forget about the puppies,” said Steve Klineman, a fixed base operator at the Kenosha Jet Center, where Levin keeps his plane.

“Oh, the blue ticks,” Levin said as he popped up from his waiting room-type chair in the center’s office. One chair over, a gray and black-striped cat named Scooter looked unimpressed.

It was just before Thanksgiving and the wind was howling at 30 knots, that’s pilot speak for about 35 mph. Levin was supposed to fly to Appleton, but set the plane down in Kenosha because of the wind and drove the 11 little hounds, all huddled together in a crate, the rest of the way.

His work with the animals, just like the time he volunteers with the kids, just adds to the enjoyment of his flights, which Levin hopes to continue for at least a couple more years before bringing it in for one more soft landing – a feat that’s not as easy at it might seem.

“I think the hardest thing for me to learn – and I’m still learning it – is how to do a soft landing,” Levin said. “I can do it a dozen times. I’ll just slide right in. And, then, there will be one time where I’ll drop in and bounce. And I’m embarrassed.”

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