Groton — Late last fall Stonington High School special education teacher Deidre Toole received a call from the mother of one of her students.

Fran Homand said her 21-year-old son, Tyler, who has autism, had qualified to compete in the National Special Olympic bowling competition in El Paso, Texas. But, she told Toole, he wouldn’t be able to go because he is petrified of airplanes.

Tyler thought there were sharks inside airplanes because of the photos he had seen of the World War II Flying Tigers squadron, which had shark faces painted on the noses of planes.

“I said, ‘Oh no, he’s going,’" Toole recalled. “I knew he could do it.”

That’s because she has seen Tyler blossom over the past six years from a rigid teen who could have a meltdown when he became upset to a young man who has become flexible with change and can work in a variety of jobs, even entertaining the residents of the Stone Ridge retirement community.

Tyler is in the high school’s TLC Community Classroom, which provides students who have learning disabilities with job and life skills while working at locations such as Stone Ridge, the Mystic Aquarium and Big Y.

“He’s always afraid of something new, but once he does it a few times he’s OK,” said Toole, who has come up with strategies to slowly introduce Tyler to new experiences. One way is to relate new things to trains, which are one of Tyler’s big interests. For example, a plane can be compared to a train, except that it goes into the sky. Another strategy is to use his coping and breathing strategies.

But a challenge remained: How to get Tyler comfortable with going through security lines at Bradley International Airport, climbing aboard a Southwest Airlines jet that he had thought was full of sharks and then staying calm as it sped down the runway and climbed into the sky.

So Toole called Groton-New London Airport and asked the woman who answered the phone if she knew of anyone who could help.

The woman told Toole she knew “exactly the right person.”

That was Dennis Piscitello of Waterford, who is a pilot for Chester-based Whalen Engineering, which keeps a Citation corporate jet at the airport.

“I was on the phone with him in 30 seconds and he said 'I’d be happy to help you, but it may take some time,'” recalled Toole.

Piscitello had Tyler come to a hangar at the airport in November for his initial introduction to an airplane.

With Piscitello was his secret weapon, his 5-year-old grandson, Austin Center of Pawcatuck, who has grown up around the hangar.

When Tyler became apprehensive about the planes, Austin gave him some candy, took him by the hand and walked him onto the jet to show him there were no sharks inside.

“I’ve done a lot of first-time fliers but none as nervous as Tyler,” recalled Piscitello. “I had briefed Austin on what we were doing and he was amazing.”

On subsequent visits to the airport, Tyler got into a six-seat Piper Seneca II while it was pulled out on to the runway. Then it was time to go up in the small plane. Tyler took video of the flight on his iPad. On the video he can be heard laughing and saying, “Merry Christmas.”

"I wanted to get him on the plane so he could go to Texas,” Austin said. “I knew he could do it.”

Tyler said Piscitello and Austin helped him get on the plane and “settle my fears.”

Piscitello then reached out to a contact at Bradley to set up a tour of the airport and to show Tyler what he would experience on the day of the flight.

Last month, Tyler got on the plane and flew to Special Olympics in Texas, where he won a gold medal. He, his parents and Toole met two weeks ago with Piscitello and Austin at the airport.

Tyler and Austin played chess and went on the jet.

Fran Homand praised Toole for her six years of work with her son.

“She’s priceless. I’ve learned so much from her about my own son. I know I’ve found a lifelong friend,” Homand said of Toole. “She has a unique way of understanding Tyler. She knows how to get him to step over the line. She even got him to eat broccoli.

“And Dennis and Austin were just amazing with him. Austin just took him by the hand and off they went. And Dennis related everything about the plane to trains. Tyler was all ears.”

At the meeting last week Piscitello presented Tyler with a certificate in honor of his first flight.

“You and I are going flying together real soon,” he said as he hugged Tyler.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas