PORT TOWNSEND — Teaching kids to fly is a good way to instill a sense of discipline and responsibility, the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce was told Monday.
“The kids will learn skills they will use the rest of their lives,” said Jerry Thuotte, the co-owner and operator of the Aero Museum, which operates adjacent to Jefferson County International Airport.
“They may not make a living working on antique planes, but they will never need a plumber.”
Thuotte, a retired pilot, teaches kids to fly in order to keep them away from drugs and other bad influences about which he has personal experience.
“During the Vietnam War, I spent a lot of time flying in the Pacific hauling personnel and materials back and forth,” he said.
“While that was keeping me busy, my two young kids were keeping busy in the drug culture, and by the time I tumble onto that I was a little late.”
He received advice that the kids “are not yours anymore, their brains have changed when they sink low enough they will either OD or get straightened out.”
Thuotte’s kids eventually found the latter path.
“They are productive now, although I don’t think they will have a long list of productive achievements in this world,” he told the chamber audience at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge.
Thuotte practices zero tolerance with his charges, many of whom come from unstable homes or once had drug habits themselves.
He does not take federal or state funds to operate the school, since that would have strings attached about how he can supervise the kids.
He is a tough taskmaster: “At the beginning they might go home weeping,” he said, “but once they get off the muck and onto the sidewalk and into the ranks of the others where they become strong adherents to the self discipline mode we have out there, it works out great.
“In the end they are taught responsibility, how to pick out goals and stick with them.”
He keeps all 38 Aero Museum airplanes in working order because “to not fly an antique airplane is to take away its soul.”
Thuotte runs the museum from donations and admission fees, although all the labor to keep the place going is free.
If something goes wrong with a plane, the kids know how to fix it, he said.
He is always looking for donations and is also hoping to find someone to take over the operation — both the maintenance of the museum and the youth program.
The museum is located at 105 Airport Road and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and active military, $6 for children from 7 to 12 and free for children 6 and younger.
For more information about the museum, or the youth mentorship program, see http://tinyurl.com/pdnaero or phone 360-379-5244.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
