School Days: The bell is ringing. Take your seat to learn about the folks who’ve shaped — and been shaped by — a North Carolina education. See related articles here.

Jorge Flores beams from the cockpit of a Van’s Aircraft RV-12iS, an aluminum plane that gleams like an Airstream. Moments earlier, he and his peers watched as the craft soared overhead, making its grand entrance at the Kill Devil Hills airfield on this crisp April morning. A senior at First Flight High School, Jorge is part of the school’s Aviation Program, a select group of 11th and 12th graders who have spent the last two and a half years constructing the plane in a lab at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It’s the first aircraft built at the site since the Wright Flyer in 1903.

Jorge joined the Aviation Program as a junior, drawn by a lifelong love of planes. Over the following years, he and his classmates dedicated time beyond their Tuesday and Thursday classes. Even on weekends and summer days, they toiled over rivets and screws, sorting parts and triple-checking wiring as the craft inched toward completion. “The plane was just a big part of my life, and it was very important to me,” Jorge says. “More so than a lot of other things.”

First Flight High School senior Jorge Flores (left) built this plane with his classmates and their mentors — including pilot Bob Newman (right) — in the school’s innovative Aviation Program. photograph by Daniel Pullen

Now in the cockpit, sunglasses donned like Maverick in Top Gun, Jorge grins excitedly at his peers and instructor on the airfield’s sidelines. He’s the first of his class to ride in the plane, piloted by one of the program’s five volunteer mentors. As Jorge waits for takeoff, all he can think is, It’s done. We’ve done it.

It’s the same thought his instructor, retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Joey Tynch, had during the plane’s test flight weeks earlier. He’d taken it to a nearby airfield, part of a necessary inspection facilitated by a Raleigh-based designated airworthiness representative. As the plane traveled down the runway that day, Tynch wasn’t nervous. After all, he’d banked more than 4,350 hours of flight time in the military; it takes more than a new plane to shake his cool. But as the wheels of the students’ creation lifted from the ground, he got goosebumps. “My mind flashed to how I’ve seen myself in every one of these students,” he said. “It couldn’t be more fulfilling.”

• • •

Wilbur and Orville might have hailed from Ohio, but their legacy soars through Dare County. Kill Devil Hills is home to First Flight Elementary, Middle, and High schools — all three of which sit in the shadow of the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The high school’s mission statement tells students to “Take Flight.” Now they have.

First Flight High School students don’t join the Aviation Program to make history, although it’s a pretty cool perk. Rather, it is one of three innovative Career and Technical Education (CTE) initiatives in Dare County that pairs local culture and tradition with classroom experience.

The hands-on instruction draws many. Some have their sights set on careers in engineering or aviation. Some are surfers who want to learn about fiberglass repair, while others find their way into the course through friends. Regardless of why they enroll, the program serves for many alumni as a runway to their plans after graduation. Of the three classes of students to graduate from the Aviation Program so far, most have pursued degrees in aeronautics or engineering, enrolled in trade programs, or entered the Navy, Army, or Air Force, no doubt inspired by their time under the leadership of Tynch — whom they call “Admiral.”

Retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Joey Tynch photograph by Chris Hannant

Tynch teaches aviation fundamentals and building techniques for the course, but he also imparts lessons beyond the classroom. He and his students discuss the importance of teamwork, discipline, and leadership. Of integrity and overcoming challenges. Each student can recite the State Toast — “where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great” — which has become a motto of sorts for many.

“He’s the best teacher,” Jorge says. “I really respect him for what he did with being in the Navy and the way he motivates us.” He credits Tynch with directing him into the Air Force, where he’s starting in the Air Traffic Control Specialist program.

Tynch’s path to service wasn’t like most. After growing up on his family’s farm in Chowan County, he left to attend UNC Chapel Hill. He spent summer breaks surfing and waiting tables in Kitty Hawk. During this time, he befriended a naval captain on vacation at the beach. The captain would come in for dinners and regale Tynch with stories from his time in the Navy. Tynch kept in touch long after summer ended.

Dare County’s Career and Technical Education programs reflect each high school’s locale. On Roanoke Island, for instance, woodworking students build a boat with guidance from local boatbuilders. photograph by Chris Hannant

Back at Chapel Hill, he started receiving Navy pamphlets in the mail — no doubt the captain’s handiwork, he says — and was accepted into Aviation Officer Candidate School upon graduating, drawn by history and the dream of flight and travel. The next three decades took him around the world, where he served as a commanding officer in Afghanistan, Japan, and Singapore. But he always knew he’d come back to North Carolina.

Upon retiring from service, Tynch and his family moved to the Outer Banks. He found out about First Flight High School’s Aviation Program from his daughter, a student at the time. Within half an hour, he was on the phone, tracking down school administrators with the precision of a former tactics instructor and operations specialist. He submitted a résumé before the day’s end.

In Buxton, Cape Hatteras Secondary School, CTE students apply their woodworking, electrical, and plumbing studies to convert a retired activity bus into a tiny home. photograph by Chris Hannant

“I would feel great if I were working with the kids in, say, Bozeman, Montana, or San Diego, but my God, to do it back in northeastern North Carolina — it’s been fantastic,” Tynch says. “I was the first male in my family to leave the farm and go to college, and I knew with the Aviation Program I could come back and shine some light on the opportunities out there for these kids.”

Eastern North Carolina has long been a hotbed of aviation, home to programs at local universities, the U.S. Coast Guard base in Elizabeth City, and Seymour Johnson Air Force base in Goldsboro. But unless you have friends or family with ties to the military, few who live here know about the opportunities available. “This program is funneling students into an industry that absolutely needs the help,” Tynch says.

The students in First Flight High School’s Aviation Program built their plane from a kit supplied by Van’s Aircraft. photograph by Chris Hannant

The first year was challenging, he admits. He labored in the lab alongside the students and their mentors — a handful of local volunteers with experience in different areas of aviation. The next year got a little easier. So did the next. Program alumni dropped by on trips back home to check on the plane’s progress and lend a hand.

Students like Jorge have been happy to welcome them back. “The plane was also a big part of their lives,” he says. “They wanted to see it finished. Especially when they’ve dropped blood, sweat, and tears into it.”

Now, Jorge is among the next alumni passing the riveter on to a new group of students.

• • •

Back at the airfield, Jorge and the plane have taxied to the far edge of the runway. He can no longer see his classmates and friends gathered at the sidelines. One alumnus, Anthony Yetzer, jogs in from the parking lot. Now a student in aviation systems technology at College of the Albemarle, he skipped his morning class to see the plane’s first public flight.

Tynch gives the pilot an all-clear through his walkie-talkie, and with a roar, the plane speeds toward all who’ve gathered to watch. Then its wings tip to the skies. The nose and cockpit lift. The craft meets the headwinds and wobbles, tilting left then right. Jorge’s stomach drops for a second, then settles as the plane steadies and rises above the tree line. One last reminder that even if you wobble, you can still soar.