DECATUR - John Durbin recently reached an unusual flying milestone.

Durbin, 67, whose earthbound job involves tilling the soil and planting corn, has taken 1,000 children on free trips into the sky.

A member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Durbin is one of several pilots who plan to fly young people above Decatur on Saturday morning.

"The purpose is to introduce kids to aviation and how an airplane flies," said Durbin, the coordinator of the association's Young Eagle Flights program.

The flights will be offered during the second fun day at Decatur Airport, sponsored by the Decatur FBO, the operation serving private and charter aircraft.

Each young passenger will also receive instruction in a ground school to learn the different parts of airplanes and what makes them fly.

Durbin, a pilot for 31 years, will be flying his four-seat, single engine Cessna 172. The plane is the most popular light aircraft ever produced, with more than 43,000 built since 1956.

Most of the children Durbin has introduced to the pleasure of flying had never flown previously.

"Most of them are apprehensive before they go," Durbin said. "That's why we talk to them about what to expect. If it bumps a little bit, we tell them why it bumps. We tell them we're in control. I've never had anyone who really got upset."

Some children are so excited, they chatter away until the pilot has to silence them just to hear the air traffic controller. Others have the opposite reaction.

"Some of the kids are very quiet, and their eyes aren't big enough to see everything," Durbin said. "They can't believe how well they can see and how beautiful it is."

The planes will take the children on a loop around the city's perimeter, flying at 1,500 feet, about the height of Chicago's Sears Tower.

Decatur Airport Director Joe Attwood commended the pilots for donating their time, as well as the cost of the aviation fuel.

"It's not cheap to fly their airplanes around the patch all day," Attwood said.

In addition to the flights, there will be other activities, including stationary planes and vehicles to inspect or climb aboard. There will be a P-51 Mustang fighter, a Black Hawk helicopter, a fire truck and the airport's new rotary snow plow.

But the biggest attraction will be the small planes, which are expected to take many young people on their virgin flights.

"I enjoy taking people up and giving them a good experience flying, to take them up to where they feel good when they come back down," Durbin said.

hfreeman@herald-review.com|421-6985