Children’s Flying Camp
Approximately 200 children enjoyed the experience offered by the Flying Camp
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 30.09.2025, 13:31
During the entire summer vacation, approximately 200 children enjoyed the experience offered by the Flying Camp! Starting from the idea that there are no happier passengers in the world than children who fly, a unique experience in the country was created in Braşov.
Why a flying camp? I asked Mihai Sturzu, pilot, founder of the Flight Camp:
“The idea was born about 4 years ago, when I was in a small, 2-seater plane, flying from Bucharest to Cluj and, to be honest, I was too lazy to fly all the way to Cluj, so I landed in Braşov, at my home, where I’m from, and while I was going down to Braşov, I asked my friends – the same ones from the 5th grade – to pick me up from the airport. My plane was going to land in about 15 minutes. The first one who answered said that of course he could come and pick me up, but he was with his grandchildren and asked if I could take them on a ride in the plane. I accepted. The second one from the group, who has children, said, well, I’m coming with the children too, the third one said he was coming with his. And so they gathered at the Ghimbav airfield, near Braşov, about 6-7 kids, with whom I flew, each one separately, the plane having two seats, and I saw a joy in their eyes as you rarely see. And then the idea of the flight camp came to me. It took a while until I put all the details together, and this year we had the first year of the flight camp, which was something extraordinary! It exceeded all of our expectations, and the joy that I experienced 4 years ago, I experienced this year with over 200 children in the flight camp!”
I asked Mihai Sturzu if children who just wanted to play came to the camp, not just those who dream of becoming pilots:
“And we expected that there would be mainly children who are passionate about aviation and who certainly want to continue on this path of flying, and many of them know that they want to become pilots and are quite well prepared, but they are still too young to start pilot school, literally. And then they come to our camp. But we had the joy of having children in the camp who were absolutely curious about aviation, about flying, and we also had children who had never flown, and their first flight was a success!”
Cristina Decu was in this camp and told us:
“I would come back to the camp every year, if I could! It’s exceptional! It’s what I want to do! To fly! As a girl, I’m quite shy and I thought, little kids, how will I get along, I didn’t have high expectations. But the camp was exceptional, very well organized! We learned a lot, we had the opportunity to see the Puma 330 helicopter factory, we saw the Airbus factory and we had a presentation of military drones and many others. But the most anticipated was the flight day, obviously! What child doesn’t want to get into a PS 28 Cruiser and see the world from above, with an instructor who reads you very well! He read me instantly, he understood me very well. At first I was a little scared, it was the first time I got into a plane in my life, I didn’t know how it felt. I didn’t have any problems. The funniest thing was when I saw the instructor raise his hands and he looked at me and said: the plane is in your hands! Even though I knew I was in command, I wasn’t afraid! I knew I was safe, because I had the instructor by my side.”
We asked Mihai Sturzu how the camp is going, and we found out that this year children came from other countries as well: Here is Mihai Sturzu:
“This summer we had children from Germany, France, Belgium, England, Ireland, they were from everywhere. For a week, the children explore and take their first steps in the world of aviation. Braşov offers us all the possibilities in the world! We go with them to the hangars to see the gliders, to see the airplanes, to see how maintenance work is done on airplanes and gliders, they are very curious, and we are happy to tell them how gliders fly even though they don’t have an engine. We talk about the history of aviation, we have a moment when we discuss flight, from Icarus to Dumitru Prunariu, [the first Romanian in space] and the extraordinary contribution that we Romanians have had in the history of aviation. The children didn’t know that today they fly with large Airbus or Boeing airplanes and with jet engines, because Henri Coandă invented the jet engine. All the children fly the plane, all pilot planes. We have a partnership with the Romanian Aeroclub, they have brand new planes, each child flies with an instructor next to them, each child pilots, has a hand on the controls, understands aviation! They have a simulator session, we go hiking on the Postavaru peak, we do a simulation, what we do if we land here, and how we find our way home.”
Experiences that make us wish we were children again! And certainly, for the participants, an experience that will change their lives for the better, or will be a memory for life, as Mihai Sturzu told us, and added that over 180 children have expressed their desire to return next year.
