VAN NUYS : 14-Year-Old Girl Just Keeps Earning Wings

Tammy Dodd has The Right Stuff.

The 14-year-old pilot from Illinois, who has flown gliders, helicopters, balloons and aerobatic planes, added a fighter jet to the list Friday after taking off from Van Nuys Airport.

Dodd, who has flown for nearly three years, is part of the Young Eagles, a project sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Assn. to interest youths in aviation.

Young Eagles, started in August, 1992, aims to introduce 1 million children to aviation by the year 2003 by giving them free rides and demonstrations.

By showing youngsters opportunities in aviation, the project gives children goals and recruits workers and participants for the aviation industry.

Tammy is already hooked. The daughter of a drywall worker from Woodstock, an hour’s drive from Chicago, wants to perform in air shows and fly private jets for a living.

She already has her license to fly solo in gliders. She can’t get licensed to fly powered aircraft until she is 16.

“She’s a real positive role model for kids,” said Joe Coulson, Tammy’s flight instructor who travels with her to schools and air shows.

When children see what Tammy has accomplished, they understand their goals are attainable, Coulson said.

But Friday, there were no crowds, no audience of children. Just a blue, white and gray Hawker-Siddley Gnat, a British fighter plane used from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, and the open sky.

Skip Holm, a Vietnam fighter pilot who has performed stunts in movies including “The Right Stuff,” accompanied Tammy on her half-hour flight in the jet he also flew in “Hot Shots.”

Tammy’s face was stern as she strapped on her red helmet and oxygen mask and climbed into the two-man cockpit. She waved to photographers as the jet taxied to the runway, its engine emitting a high-pitched scream.

She was waving again as the jet taxied back a half-hour later.

“I loved it!” she said, breathless, as she took off her helmet and stood in the cockpit. “We did some rolls! I’ve never felt that many Gs.”