The National Youth Aviation Academy

A Curriculum-Based Mentor ProgramBy Don DeLoach ddeloach@comcast.net Photos provided by the authorAs seen in the June 2025 issue of Model Aviation.Mentorship programs are nearly as old as model aviation itself. All of us started somewhere, with someone helping. For many of us—me included—it was our fathers passing down their hobby to us. For others, it was an uncle, neighbor, Scout leader, or other mentor. This one-on-one mentorship model worked well when many fathers worked in aerospace or other technical fields and model aviation was in its heyday.In recent years, a new mentoring paradigm…