I just love to fly. (11-year-old Vicki Van Meter is the youngest girl to fly a plane across the Atlantic Ocean)(Cover Story)

US Kids, December, 1994 by Davis, Charles

Eleven-year-old Vicki Van Meter was piloting her plane thousands of feet above the Atlantic Ocean. Her goal was to fly across the Atlantic, from Maine to Scotland. If she could reach Scotland, Vicki would become the youngest female pilot ever to complete the more than 2,000-mile flight.

But now Vicki had a problem. She saw ice forming on the wings of her small single-engine plane. She knew this could be dangerous. Long ago, Vicki had been taught that too much ice could cause a plane to crash.

But Vicki knew what to do. She carefully pressed forward on the plane's control wheel. She aimed the plane's nose downward. Soon the plane was almost skimming the ocean--she was only 500 feet above the waves.

Was Vicki scared? Not at all....

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