Wings ‘N Wheels put new meaning in the word “elevate.”

Prior to the Wings ‘N Wheels Fly-in and Car Show Saturday, Powell Municipal Airport was gearing up for the spectacle, including a few high-octane airplane rides for local kids via the Elevate Your Life program Friday.

Stunt pilot Brad Wursten in his Extra 300 LX two-seat airplane was going to take a Powell youth for a ride in the Elevate program that uses aviation to inspire and motivate youth to follow their dreams.

The criteria was youth were to write an essay, and the winner would get a free ride in Wursten’s plane.

But the Powell youngster who wrote the essay earning a ride couldn’t make it, so some local kids went for a spin instead.

Jay Washington, 11, of Ralston was one. Suzie Tope, 17, of Cody, went and so did Jaden Davis, 15, of Sidney, Montana. With his GoPro, Wursten provided the footage live from his cockpit, which can be viewed online at www.facebook.com/powelltribune.

Wursten also flew at the Wings ‘N Wheels the next day.

PR pilot

Wursten, from Logan, Utah, might be the perfect spokesman for Elevate Your Life.

Wursten took off with Elevate three years ago.

“Founded in 2008, the Ryan J. Poe Foundation was created by world-renowned aerobatic pilot Greg Poe as a means of supporting his youth program called ‘Elevate Your Life,’” according to Elevate’s website at www.ryanjpoe.org. “This exciting and nationally recognized program came about as a result of Greg’s son, Ryan’s, tragic drug related death in August of 2002.”

Greg Poe died in 2011.

“I took over a year after he (Greg) passed away,” Wursten said.

Elevate and Wursten paid Powell their first visit in 2013.

Now Wursten flies Elevate kids at practically every air show he performs at. He flies kids in his Extra 300 LX and fires-up his MXS-R for air shows, he said. 

He lets the local air show organizers decide which kids fly. Sometimes they are youth with disabilities. “I truly believe it gives them some kind of inspiration,” Wursten said.

Wursten worked hard to realize his dreams, both on the ground and in the air.

Wursten and his brother, Bret, took over their Logan machine shop business from their father, Jerry. In four years, the business had doubled in size. Now the brothers employ 105 people.

“I started flying models when I was 8 years old,” Wursten said.

At age 20, he earned his pilot’s license. Wursten wanted to pilot commercial aircrafts, but soon realized living out of a suitcase was not for him. Then in 1984, Wursten saw an air show and was hooked, he said.

By age 26 he was taking airplane aerobatics lessons.

He does six to eight Elevate programs per year. Ninety-nine percent of the youth he takes for a ride would not have the opportunity to fly in a plane like the Extra without Elevate. “That’s the rewarding factor to me,” Wursten said.

The point of the program is inspiring youth to pursue their aspiration with passion. “If you put your mind to something, you can achieve your dream,” Wursten said.

Hopefully when kids take off with him, it will click in their heads that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, Wursten said.

High flying role models

Suzie Tope definitely has a thing for wings and wheels.

“I’ve always liked airplanes and cars,” Tope said.

“My dad’s airplane is right there,” Tope said, proudly pointing out her father’s Supercub Experimental parked in a hangar. He is a member of the International Experimental Aircraft Association, she said.

Her father, Loren Tope, is friends with Wings organizer Mike Martin.

Unofficially, Loren Tope is the most highly decorated U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran from Wyoming, Martin said.

Loren Tope built his plane. The Federal Aviation Administration designated the aircraft as an original design, Loren said.

On the airplane’s door is Chuck Yeager’s autograph. Yeager signed the door around 1988 when he was grand marshall of the July 4 parade in Cody, Loren said.

Yeager, a U.S. Air Force retired Brigadier general, was a World War II pilot, test pilot after the war and the first confirmed pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Suzie grew up in his plane, Loren said. Now they’re rebuilding a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle.

Susie was calm prior to her flight.

“I’m kind of a thrill-seeker,” Suzie said. “I do sports in school that give me kind of an adrenaline rush.”

“This is the very best two-seat airplane you can buy in the world,” Wursten said.

It’s a sleek machine of silver and blue. It races across the runway and seems to leap into the air.  Wursten does loops and rolls. The plane cartwheels from the sky like a metallic leaf caught in a draft, then goes vertical like a rocket.

Wursten said he allows his young passengers to help fly the plane. “I let them do hands-on,” he said.

“Three vertical rolls while she had the stick,” Martin said.

Back on the ground, Susie is electrified.

“It was fun,” Suzie said to her father. “It was intense.”

“It was awesome,” Davis said after his flight.

“I did a loop,” Washington said with pride.