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Sky’s the limit

The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Surrounded by his classmates while manning the controls of a flight simulator Friday, Lanai High and Elementary School sixth grader Archer Ozoa, 11, gets help performing a barrel roll from Maui Civil Air Patrol Deputy Commander for Seniors Ed Taomoto. Students got to fly until they crashed. Ozoa managed to stay in the air a long time. “It felt great,” Ozoa said.

SECOND PHOTO: Retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Capt. Scott “Scooter” Altman answers a question from a Maui student Friday during the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference Space Day at the Wailea Beach Resort — Marriott, Maui.

The Space Day event held on the last day of the six-day conference included 150 Maui County students.

Altman talked about his four Space Shuttle missions, as well as his time as a Naval aviator, engineer and test pilot. He described training Tom Cruise for the first Top Gun movie and also standing in for the actor on some of the movie’s most memorable flight scenes.

He said his time in space changed his perspective of the planet and fragility of its atmosphere. He also said he grew while in space from 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-6.

The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos

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