CADET Youth
Flight Scholarship

up to $600 for non-pilots.
Annual. Deadline June 30.

SSA's welcome to young people who want to learn to fly

The Cadet Scholarship is a grassroots effort to get young people acquainted with soaring. It is named after the first "utility" training glider in production, built for "air-minded youth" of the 1930s. The Cadet featured an enclosed fuselage and landing wheel, reasonable soaring performance yet rugged construction: an all-in-one beginner's glider.

On July 2, 1930, a Cadet made the first soaring flight from Harris Hill, Elmira, NY. Jack O'Meara's one-and-a-half hours in the air cemented the choice of the site for the first National Glider Contest that Fall. The National Soaring Museum stands there today.

Winners of scholarships and several smaller prizes are selected each year from young non-pilot applicants who visit a USA gliderport and make a good case via an essay and vita for their desire to learn to fly, financial need, and promise in other aspects of life.

Promotion of the contest is a cooperation between the Soaring Society of America (SSA), which supplies standard posters (170K PDF file) and application forms (34K PDF file), and local soaring Clubs and Schools, who put up the posters, answer questions, and do the training: when one of their entries wins, they win. For a free PDF reader...

The sponsors of this program, from throughout the USA soaring community, hope the contest will introduce the sport and spark many beginnings towards a lifetime of soaring enjoyment. For some award winners, it will be an ideal ground-floor to an aviation career.

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INDEX of CADET Scholarship Information

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RULES for the CADET Scholarship Contest

• OPEN TO AGES 13-22, inclusive, as of June 30. (A reasonable overlap of the limits of school age, SSA Youth membership, and FAA regulations)
• FOR NON-PILOTS: Flying experience short of FAA Student Certificate (solo pilot) in any aircraft category, with consideration decreasing with experience. (Flying has to be tried to be appreciated. Some young people are burning to go further but unable to)
• FIRST PRIZE (up to 2): Up to a $600 check, co-written to the winner and the USA Soaring Club or Commercial Operator that sponsors the entry. (The prize must be used for glider flying lessons. Payment will only go to responsible training operations)
• SECOND PRIZE (up to 3): Introductory books on gliding and soaring.
• THIRD PRIZE (up to 5): A one year Youth membership in SSA, including 12 issues of Soaring magazine and eligibility for SSA and FAI soaring badges, records and contests. (SSA is the USA governing body for the sport of soaring in sailplanes)
• ENTRY DEADLINE is June 30. Winners will generally be contacted by Fall each year.
• JUDGING will be by the Cadet Scholarship committee within the SSA Youth Sub-Committee. (The number of prizes awarded may vary based on entries received)
• APPLICATION is to include an essay and a curriculum vitae on a special form. (34K PDF file) . (Good writers are welcome additions to the aesthetically-oriented soaring community. Space will be included to document talents in academic, athletic, and social areas; also financial need. Most important is to offer evidence of a high desire to learn to fly )
• ESSAYS must concern some aspect of Soaring Flight and be original work by the applicant. They must be typed and not exceed 400 words. (Many subjects are possible: Technical, historical; models, birds, hang-gliders, paragliders; clubs, contests, crewing; flight stories, fiction, interviews, "why I want to soar", ... Note: essays on powerplants, airline careers, or military fighters miss the point: "soaring" flight only, please!)
• FORMS are at most soaring sites and may be downloaded from the CYFS web page.
• APPLICATIONS must be counter-signed ("witnessed") by a member or staffer, at a named Club or Commercial Operator soaring site (Where applicants can directly observe our social, adventurous, ecological sport. SSA maintains a national directory on the web)
• SEND witnessed applications to: Cadet Scholarship, SSA, PO Box 2100, Hobbs, NM 88241-2100.

WINNERS of the CADET Scholarship

SOARING SITES in the USA

Soaring is a surprisingly unknown or misunderstood activity. The purpose of the CADET Scholarship program is to encourage young people to discover it first-hand by visiting a dedicated "gliderport" or a municipal airport that hosts sailplane flying along with other aviation activities. The SSA Directory of Soaring Sites is a comprehensive guide (go to www.ssa.org, and click on "Where to Fly" for a searchable index).

Soaring sites may be Commercial (a "School" or "FBO"--Fixed Base Operator) or Cooperative (a "Club"). Sometimes both, with FBOs and Clubs working together to offer both the convenience of flying by appointment (FBO) and the lower cost of shared equipment and labor (Club). Either way, almost all soaring operations offer demonstration rides and flight training. Many FBOs hire teenagers to "work the line" (push gliders, hook up towropes, etc.). Many Clubs waive initiation fees for young people and give them flight credit for club work.

In the USA, there is an even balance between FBOs (about 120) and Clubs (about 150). There is a glider operation in every State, and you are likely to find one within an hour of any large city.  Try the search engine at the new SSA website.  Many operations have websites with lots of images--check out a few Clubs, or scroll to the end of the list of SSA Business Members to find several several large FBOs. The Yellow Pages may list places to soar under "Gliders" or "Aviation Schools", and if all else fails, ask SSA by phone, (505)392-1177 or e-mail info@ssa.org .

TESTIMONIALS to the CADET Scholarship

...from a 1995 First Prize winner:

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you tremendously for the SSA Cadet Youth Flight Scholarship that I was awarded earlier this year. I began flying at the beginning of June and, on July 5th, I soloed in a Blanik L-13 at Southern Soaring. Wilson Brown has created a terrific environment at his gliderport. It's always a pleasure to be there since everybody's welcome, and visitors are treated like old friends. And the instruction was great, too. Ray Bowkley was my primary instructor, and I can't imagine a better person to learn from. He's always so calm, which is very reassuring to a beginner.

Two days after I soloed, I began flying in my favorite plane, the infamous SGS 1-26E. I fulfilled the requirements for the B and C badges within several days in the 1-26 thanks to some good conditions for our location. My next goal is the Bronze Badge. On my last flight of the summer, I was able to make a 1:49 flight, falling just short of the two hour requirement. However, I was still very excited since it was my longest flight to date. Unfortunately, I am back in college now, so I haven't been able to fly as often as I would like. Instead, I'm taking this opportunity to read all I can about soaring, and prepare for my written exam.

Thank you so much for helping me to begin a lifetime dream. Gliders are definitely in my blood. Somehow, I worked full-time this summer, and I don't have any money left over! But it was well worth it to fly among the birds (and sometimes show them the way to the thermals!), and loiter in the cool shade around the bases of the magnificent cumulus clouds. There is nothing like the gratification of stumbling upon a thermal when landing seems imminent, or making the perfect landing when it really counts. Now that I've experienced it, I can't imagine life without soaring! Even on the days when I can't fly for one reason or another, it's great to be around the airport, helping to run wings or move planes, or just being around others who have my same addiction!

I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity that you have blessed me with. Thanks again, and happy soaring!

/S/ Nathan Maloy
September 1996, Clemson SC

DONORS to the CADET Scholarship Program

The designer of the Cadet glider himself, Dr. Frank R. Gross of Akron, OH, initiated the funding for this SSA scholarship in 1994. Dr. Gross believed that the future of any human activity, including aviation, lies with its youth. He was in position to know: Inducted to the USA Soaring Hall of fame in 1996 at the age of 90, Dr. Gross saw the sport pass through the hands of four generations. He was there at the very beginning, having earned his engineering degree at Darmstadt University in 1928, and having designed 4 gliders before SSA was even founded in 1932.

Before being approved as an SSA program at the 1994 Winter SSA Board meting, the program had already shown its worth under private sponsorship by Tom Knauff and Doris Grove, as the "Knauff & Grove Scholarship". This version of the contest operated 1989-'92, directed by John H. Campbell.

The concept that Dr. Gross brought to the SSA Board was that such an outreach and welcome should be an undertaking of the whole soaring community, much as the flying of any glider is a cooperation between pilot, launch crew, and whole clubs or staffs of people. Accordingly, Dr. Gross declined to have the award named after him and challenged all soaring pilots to contribute to an endowment fund.

Between May 31, 1994 and December 31, 1996, 60 different donors spoke up for soaring's future, including 25 SSA Chapter Clubs and 11 SSA Commercial Operators or Business Members.

Tax-deductible donations to "SSA" for the "CADET Youth Flight Scholarship"
may still be sent at any time to the Soaring Society of America, Inc.
PO Box 2100, Hobbs NM 88241-2100. Info@ssa.org. (505)392-1177,-8154(FAX)
Credit Cards are welcome

STATISTICS for the CADET Scholarship

  * Each inquiry to the SSA Office elicits a soaring info package
** Requires a visit to a gliderport to pick up an application

Back to SSA YOUTH Homepage

Please feel free to visit these other Youth-in-Soaring Links

 | SSA Youth Programs |  Kolstad College Scholarship |  Bultman Flight Scholarship | 
 |  USA Junior Soaring Team |  Kolstad Century Badges |  Collegiate Soaring Association | 
 | CAP National Flight Academy-Glider | Sailplanes & Youth | 

Last revised: 31-Dec-04