Only 9, and Already Leaving the Nest : Boy Wings Way Toward Record

His buzz-cut brown hair barely visible over the airplane’s nose, third-grader Tony Aliengena of San Juan Capistrano settled confidently into the pilot’s seat--an infant’s car seat.

Then his father, Gary Aliengena, leaned through the window and asked Tony--poised Wednesday to take off on a history-making flight--that most urgent question in aviation: “You need to go to the bathroom?”

“Yeah,” the 9-year-old grunted.

“Then go,” his father ordered.

Quick as a barrel roll, the boy clambered out of the cockpit and in his white Reeboks sprinted to a nearby bathroom past a phalanx of reporters, TV cameras and cheering classmates from St. Margaret’s Episcopal School.

Minutes later, Tony taxied down a John Wayne Airport runway. As the 285-horsepower, turbocharged-engine roared, he pointed the Cessna 210 Centurion into the cobalt sky, lifting off on a nine-day flight that he hopes will land him in the record books as the youngest pilot ever to fly across the United States and back.

Tony was not alone in the six-seater airplane for his latest attempt at a world record. Also crowded inside were Don Taylor, an official with the National Aeronautics Assn., to verify the record, two members of the news media and his flight instructor, Ed Fernett. Federal Aviation Administration rules require pilots under 16 to be accompanied by an instructor.

Just two weeks ago, Tony became what is believed to be the youngest pilot ever to fly solo--accomplished in an ultra-light aircraft that is not regulated by the FAA.

At the age of 9 years and 295 days, he nipped the previous record held by Cody A. Locke, who was 21 days older when he made his 1983 flight in Mexicali, Mexico, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Indeed, more and more preteens, too young to have a pilot’s license--not to mention a driver’s license--are perching on pillows to peer over too-tall instrument panels, hoping to fly to fame.

On Aug. 13, 10-year-old Christopher Lee Marshall of San Luis Obispo became the youngest person ever to fly across the country and back. He said he was inspired after his father saw a news account of a cross-country flight by 11-year-old John Kevin Hill of Texas earlier in the summer.

Tony, a straight-A student at school, also credits Hill with the idea of a cross-country trip.

“I saw that this kid broke this record,” he said, speaking into a bouquet of reporter’s microphones on the runway Tarmac. “So I asked my dad if I could.”

Taylor said he was not concerned about increasingly younger children attempting to set piloting records. “It’s just a question of ability,” he said. “The problem will be some kid stealing a plane and trying to fly after seeing this.”

Tony is scheduled to arrive on the East Coast on April 1 at Hascom Airport near Boston, with stops along the way in Texas, Tennessee and Virginia. He is scheduled to return to Orange County on April 11 after stops in Washington, D.C., Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arizona. The longest leg of the flight should be less than six hours, Fernett said.

Tony, with about 65 hours of air time logged already, has as much flight training as any other beginning pilot he has instructed, Fernett said. “I don’t anticipate any problem,” he said. “Tony is a very good student.”