Valley Weekend : KIDS : Free Flights in Pacoima Aim to Teach the Right Stuff : Young Eagles program at Whiteman Airport gives youngsters 8 to 18 a close-up look at aviation.

Often the only activity for children visiting a small airport is to peek through the runway fence to watch grown-ups get into their private planes and fly off for parts unknown. But this Saturday morning at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, kids can go along for a ride. For free.

The Whiteman Airport at the corner of San Fernando Road and Osborne Street is the local site of a nationwide program, Young Eagles, designed to interest children 8 to 18 in learning about aeronautics.

A series of Saturday flights has been organized by an aviation enthusiasts group, the Experimental Aircraft Assn., using private (but not experimental) planes flown by volunteer pilots.

One of them is Charlie Ducat, president of the association’s Chapter 40, the local group providing the flights. He says the association’s goal is to get 1 million children nationwide “to see that aviation can be work, fun and even a career.”

A child’s parent or legal guardian must fill out and sign a permission form and present it to the pilot on Saturday before any child can leave the ground.

The duration of the flights is 20 minutes--maybe a gnat’s wink of a trip for a kid, but it could feel like forever to a parent waiting for the plane to return from its flight over nearby Magic Mountain.

* Young Eagles program, offered by the Experimental Aircraft Assn., provides free flights to kids 8 to 18 from Whiteman Airport, at the corner of San Fernando Road and Osborne Street in Pacoima. Flights begin at 10:30 a.m. and require signed parental consent. Other sessions are scheduled for Oct. 21 and Nov. 18. For more information, call (818) 725-4AIR.