Article and Photos By Ted Luebbers, EAA Chapter 534
The Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534 in Leesburg Florida announces the 2025 Ray Aviation Scholarship winner to be Abdiel Hernandez from Tavares, FL.
Abdiel is 16 years old and just finishing up his sophomore year at Tavares High School.
He has always had an interest in aviation, and one day he hopes to become a commercial airline pilot.
Abdiel has been a member of the EAA Chapter 534 youth program for some time and has taken several flights with their Young Eagles program.
He is looking forward to beginning his flight training at Sun Air Aviation at the Leesburg International Airport right here in Florida.
Abdiel is only one of three Ray Aviation Scholars taking part in an EAA National Beta Simulator flight test in the country. If this Beta test is successful, it will become an integral part of the Scholarship program.
The Ray Aviation Scholarship grant of $13,000 will go a long way toward paying for Abdiel’s flight training to obtain his Private Pilot’s License. This will be his first giant step to attain his dream of becoming an airline pilot.
This Scholarship program is funded by the Ray Foundation, managed by EAA National, in Oshkosh WI, and administered through approved local EAA chapters such as Chapter 534 here in Leesburg, FL.
To date this is the seventh Ray Aviation Scholarship awarded to local youths here in the lake County area.
This program has created four private pilots and two more waiting for their FAA check rides.
Several of those scholarship recipients have gone on to seek Instrument, Seaplane and Commercial ratings.
Scholarship recipients must be active in the local EAA chapter youth programs such as Squadron 534 at EAA Chapter 534. Here is where they begin to learn more about aviation under the supervision of chapter members who become their mentors.
They volunteer helping out at fly-In breakfasts and at Young Eagle Rallies. They gain experience working on radio control models as well as helping to build and repair real experimental aircraft.
Each year these aviation youth members compete for the annual Ray Aviation Scholarship. Each chapter has a Ray Aviation Coordinator who oversees the program and he or she makes recommendations to a chapter selection board for the recipient for that year.
This year EAA Chapter 534 congratulates Abdiel Henandez as the recipient of the chapter’s 2025 Ray Scholarship winner.
