Zenith Aircraft's Roger Dubbert takes Laney Toliver, a news reporter at KOMU 8 TV News in Columbia and University of Missouri journalism school senior, flying for her first flight in a light aircraft.
The flight was part of her visit to kit manufacturer Zenith Aircraft Company, based at Mexico Memorial Airport in central Missouri. Zenith Aircraft designs and builds all-metal light airplane kits for the DIY market, shipping the aircraft kits to customers across the country and around the world.
Laney Toliver's story about Zenith Aircraft will be featured in an upcoming "Show Me Missouri" segment of KOMU 8 TV News, that features stories about people and places of interest in central Missouri.
In this video, Roger takes Laney flying in the company's popular Zenith CH 750 Cruzer light sport kit aircraft around the airport and local Mexico, Missouri community, sharing some of local history and landmarks that they fly over. During the flight, which was Laney's first flight in a light airplane, Roger introduces the reporter to personal aviation and piloting, showing her the light aircraft controls and systems, and demonstrating two takeoffs and landings, while giving her a hands-on feel for what it’s like to fly a light sport airplane. She even flies the airplane herself, taking over the controls to experience piloting the sporty light airplane (at 11:33)
Zenith Aircraft Company is a leader in the light sport kit aircraft industry, and has been based at Mexico Memorial Airport since 1992. The company manufactures a full line of all-metal DIY kit aircraft, specializing in affordable and easy to fly light aircraft. Zenith hosts monthly "hands-on" workshop at the factory to introduce new customers to the rewarding hobby of building and flying personal aircraft.
The Missouri School of Journalism, part of the University of Missouri in Columbia, is one of the most highly regarded and oldest journalism schools in the world. The school owns and operates KOMU-TV (an NBC affiliate), the only university-owned full-power commercial television station in the US, and is used as a training lab for students who provide its news programming.