Student Chase Niemi handles the controls of a small aircraft with the supervision of pilot Dave Schmidt during Michigan Tech's Summer Youth Program on Thursday. Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette

CALUMET — The Summer Youth Program Aviation students were put to the test Thursday afternoon.

After a few days of courses at Michigan Tech, several high school students from around the country got to handle the controls of small aircraft in flight. An experienced pilot lifted the aircraft from the ground and once the plane was stable and the student ready, he or she got the chance the program prepared them for.

They applied all the skills they had learned about the instrumentation of the cockpit and steered the craft sometimes at 2,500 feet above ground level from Houghton County Memorial Airport.

From the skies, the students could see the Copper Country, including the Porcupine Mountains rising in the distance to the west and the island of Isle Royale out in Lake Superior. The planes went briefly above Lake Superior and then hooked back around to land at the airport.

Some of the students in the program this year were locals from the Upper Peninsula. Marquette Senior High School rising senior Chase Niemi was one of the Yoopers to man the controls. He had always had a passion for planes and aviation and thought the program would be a good way for him to determine if he would enjoy flying small aircraft. The 17 year old said that the experience was quite different from the simulation and commercial flights.

“We definitely got thrown around a bit,” Niemi said. “The turbulence definitely got ahold of us there; wind was giving us a little bit of troubles, but it was all all right.”

He said the classes familiarized him with the controls in the actual aircraft and that having that understanding helped him feel in control of the flight. Something did take him by surprise during the flight, however.

“It definitely was a lot easier than I would’ve imagined compared to the simulators we had done,” Niemi said. “The things we had learned in class had me think it would be a lot more difficult. It was pretty easy.”

After that experience, Niemi promised that he would be pursuing piloting. He wanted to thank the EAA for the experience and that he would definitely be getting into another plane soon.

Another soon-to-be senior, Liisa Ylitalo of Calumet High School also flew in the sky for the first time in a light body aircraft. She got to steer above the portage canal and said she enjoyed her experience and applying what she had learned.

“I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely met my standards,” Ylitalo said. “In class, you learn a bit about the instruments and when I was steering I used the instruments to make sure that I wasn’t doing anything too wrong.”

She said that the experience solidified her ideas of becoming a pilot, and because of this program the Upper Peninsula could one day have these two Yoopers piloting aircrafts on their own.