WADSWORTH, Oh. – She can’t drive a car, but this 15-year old girl traveled from Holland to a small country airfield in Ohio to learn how to fly an airplane. The proud father snapping photos of her from the taxiway is one of our nation’s leading space-based telescope repairman.

RAVENNA — It’s a bright Thursday afternoon at Portage County Regional Airport, a few weeks into April. Some pilots are taking advantage of the clear weather. Others are dusting out the downtime clutter in their hangars or simply displaying their planes in the spring sun.

KENT — Some time after the first solo and before becoming licensed, every pilot who has learned how to fly since the 1920s has been warned, “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots—but there are no old bold pilots.” How then, does one explain Richard Schwabe?

The Kent State University Precision Flight Team can drop a 2-ounce container into a barrel from 200 feet and land a Cessna 152H in a box the size of a football field. These regional winners head to nationals this month.

SALEM — A fine meal at a small airport usually means a vending machine with two kinds of candy and a nearby pot of hot coffee. Someone forgot to mention this to Mike Pidgeon and his family. On a good day, they are serving a home-cooked breakfast and lunch to 450 guests—and you can park your airplane at the door. With flight training, a maintenance shop and the cheapest fuel for miles, Salem’s Skypark airport is almost heaven.

RAVENNA — Pilots often refer to their innate skills in the cockpit as “seat-of-the-pants flying.” Nancy German is a local business owner who sews the seats for airplanes and wonders if she might be a 21st century dinosaur.

PORT CLINTON, Oh. – Passengers and pilots alike are enchanted with the Old Tin Goose. This 1920’s era Ford Tri-Motor with a corrugated metal skin brings out the best in people, and every few years or so, they flock to Port Clinton with their kids for a nostalgic low-altitude hop around the Lake Erie Islands.

This photoessay accompanies the feature story, “Hubble Repairman’s Daughter.