Boy’s School Bus Is a Nifty Cessna 150

A 16-year-old boy has found a novel way to avoid the lengthy bus ride from his home in the Sierra Nevada mountains to his high school in the town of Sonora: He flies.

“I’m not bored this way because I’m up in the air, and I get to make the decisions instead of being trapped on a bus,” said Curtiss Aldrich, who has been taking his Cessna 150 to Columbia Airport, only a few miles from Sonora High School, each school day since his 16th birthday April 23.

When he goes home in the afternoon, Curtiss parks the plane at Pine Mountain Lake Airport, next to his house.

Meanwhile, about 110 of his classmates must take a bus to and from Groveland, about 120 miles east of San Francisco. The students ride more than an hour along steep, narrow mountain roads.

“People want to know why we would let a 16-year-old boy fly a plane alone to school,” said his father, Jon Aldrich, who has been a private pilot for 25 years. “Well, I tell them it’s a lot safer than the alternatives.”

Despite concerns expressed by parents about the bus ride, however, there never has been a serious accident on the bus trip to and from Sonora, according to the California Highway Patrol and school officials.

Curtiss explained that his pilot’s license, obtained a week before he passed the test for his driver’s license, allows him to fly alone but not with passengers.

“The girls who didn’t talk to me before have asked questions about the plane and what it’s like to be a pilot,” Curtiss said.