Dakota Flight Center LLC

We're seeing smoke because Carlton is on fire! 🔥 Carlton Penner completed his first solo flight after just 11 hours of training. Congratulations, and keep up the great work!

Lucas Grieve started another year of high school and successfully completed his first solo flight all in the same week! Way to go, Lucas!

YAHOO for Kaiyu! He overcame obstacles and persevered to accomplish his goal of obtaining his Private Pilot Certificate. Congratulations!

Happy National Aviation Day!

Today is August 19. 💙

Today marks 155 years since Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio. And today is National Aviation Day—a day created to honor Orville's birthday and celebrate all of aviation.

The Wright Brothers:

Two bicycle mechanics from Ohio. Not scientists. Not wealthy. Just obsessed with a simple question: how can humans fly?

Wilbur was the visionary. Orville was the engineer. Together, they balanced each other perfectly. Dreams with precision. Ambition with method.

They read everything. Built wind tunnels. Tested wing designs. Made calculations between bike repairs. Their customers had no idea they were watching history being built. ✈️

December 17, 1903. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Freezing wind. A machine of wood, canvas, and wire. Orville climbed in.

12 seconds. 120 feet. The first powered, controlled flight in human history.

It lasted less time than it takes to read this sentence. But it changed everything. Within hours, Wilbur flew 852 feet. The dream had taken flight. 💙

Today We Celebrate:

Wilbur died in 1912, just nine years after their greatest achievement. Orville lived until 1948, watching aviation transform from 12 seconds to the jet age. He lived long enough to see what he and his brother started: airmail, commercial aviation, transcontinental flights.

National Aviation Day isn't just about the Wright brothers—though they started it all. It's about every pilot who followed them. Every engineer who built on their work. Every person who looked at the sky and believed.

From Dayton, Ohio to every runway on the planet. From 12 seconds to circumnavigating Earth. From a dream to reality.

Today, August 19, we celebrate Orville's 155th birthday and National Aviation Day.

We celebrate the sky. We celebrate the dreamers. We celebrate everyone who chose aviation. 💙 ✈️

We've only known Alex Ames for 8 short months, and here we are celebrating another major accomplishment. Congratulations to Alex on obtaining his Instrument rating! All your hard work is paying off - keep up the good work!

Dan Kiely (L, with DFC instructor Will Seykora, R) came all the way from Texas to get his tailwheel endorsement in our Legend Cub! (Ok, so he may have already been in area to see family, but we're glad to be part of his travel itinerary!)

We celebrate one of our own this time! Instructor Sawyer Gauer added more letters behind his name as he obtained his Multi-Engine Instructor rating (MEI). Congratualtions, Sawyer! We're so glad to have you on our team!

Cue the fireworks because we're still celebrating! Byron W. and Deborah H. both recently obtained their Private Pilot's Licenses. And did we mention, they are both teenagers! Congratulations and continued success to these students who have very bright futures!

It's always a fun celebration getting your shirt tail cut! Congratulations to James Yee on his first solo flight. Keep up the good work, James!

Another rating in the books for Trey Morrison! He obtained his Multi Engine Commercial Add-on Rating. Congratulations, Trey, from all of us at Dakota Flight!