VALLEY — The owner and operator of the Blue Skies Above Flight School at the Lanett Regional Airport was the guest speaker at the Monday meeting of the Valley Lions Club. Matthew Bourguignon talked about the rapid growth being experienced by the flight school, how much fun it was to have had a fly over with Santa Claus just before the Valley Wide Christmas Parade and an upcoming Young Eagles Rally that will be taking place at Lanett Regional on Saturday, January 25th.
Bourguignon started a one-man, one-plane flight school in 2023. It has since grown to 15 people and six planes. The flight school is full, and there’s a waiting list of young people who are eager to learn to fly an airplane.
Weather permitting, the rally will be taking place between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 25th.
The flight school gets its name from the very common good luck expression pilots say to each other. When a pilot meets another aviator about to take off, he or she often says “Blue skies” to wish them a safe flight. Bourguignon wanted to call his school Blue Skies but that name had already been taken by another flight school. He changed it a bit to Blue Skies Above to get the same sentiment across.