The first Youth Aviation Adventure was held at the Albert Lea Municipal Airport Saturday, giving students a chance to learn about aviation.

“Kids are fascinated by them (airplanes), whether they’re riding or see them fly over. Their questions are: How does it work? What makes it fly? How do I go about doing it? What we wanted to do is explain those questions,” said MN Aviation Inc. owner Mike Nevins.

About 200 students between the ages of 10 and 18 attended the event. Many of them were local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Attending the event counted as work toward an aviation merit badge. The event was from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and cost $10.

Students cycled between nine stations where they learned about things like aerodynamics, airport operations, preflight checks and building model aircrafts. All the instructors were former MN Aviation students or MN Aviation staff. The students spent about 15 minutes at each station.

These stations gave the students a first hand opportunity to learn about potential careers in aviation, and they could also meet and talk to people with aviation jobs. Some of those careers include being a pilot, mechanic, air traffic controller and flight instructor, Nevins said.

Grant Nielsen, a pilot with Delta Air Lines, spoke to the students at a station focused on preflight inspections.

“It’s great. I grew up at this airport, learning about airplanes and coming out to pancake breakfasts. It’s really nice to see the kids interested in this, and not everybody’s just interested in video games,” said Nielsen, a former MN Aviation student and former Albert Lea resident.

Nielsen spoke to the students near a plane and he showed them the different things a pilot would inspect. He also said they talked a little bit about aerodynamics and instruments of the plane.

“We talk about the importance of checking an airplane and making sure it’s safe before you go flying,” Nielsen said.

Air traffic controller Darren Schone spoke to the children in front of a model airport he and other instructors built. The model included planes, an airplane hanger, a control tower, runways and even lit runway lights.

A forecast of snow caused some concerns that a few of the planes expected to attend or fly over would not attend the event. However, a Minnesota State Patrol Bell 206 helicopter was expected to stop at the airport around 1 p.m.

Youth Aviation Adventure was formed in Columbus, Ohio, in 1997, but this is the first time such an event has been held in Albert Lea. Nevins said he hopes it will become a yearly event.