Barley old enough to drive, students take to the skies

By K.C. McConnell and Seth Zweifler
Staff Reporter and News Editor

As Alec Mayes’s bold yellow Piper J-3 Cub takes off from the runway, a sweeping calm fills the cockpit. The airport quickly grows smaller as the plane gains in altitude, replacing the hustle and bustle of life on the ground with the peace and quiet of the open sky.

While most teenagers are focused on getting their driver’s license during high school, some students are taking their passion for vehicles to new heights.

Mayes, a junior, is one of a growing number of students preparing to take their pilot’s license test in the upcoming months, with the hope of someday pursuing a career in aviation. While the road to becoming a pilot is long and arduous, most of these aspiring students say that the feeling of soaring high above the clouds is well worth the work it requires.

Mayes began flying at an early age, receiving a set of flying lessons at Brandywine Airport—located in West Chester—for his eighth birthday. He described the experience of his first flight as “intimidating, but exhilarating all the same.”

“I couldn’t even see above the dashboard at the time, but I knew that it was something I enjoyed and wanted to pursue,” he said.

Since that time, Mayes said he has developed what once started as a simple hobby into a viable career option. After receiving clearance from a certified flight instructor, he made his first solo flight on his 16th birthday.

“I flew a plane by myself before I even had a driver’s permit for a car,” Mayes said. “That was a little strange.”

However, he will have to wait a little bit longer when it comes to obtaining an official general aviation license. Among other requirements, applicants must be at least 17 years old and must have logged a minimum of 40 hours of practice with a certified instructor in order to take the examination.

“The requirements are extensive, but the bottom line is that you have to be ready,” Mayes said. “Decision-making is key, and you need to know how to act quickly if anything goes wrong.”

Beyond the thrill of soaring through the air, Mayes said that flying does have its other perks.

“It’s one of the more practical forms of travel,” he said. “Traffic is not a factor, and you don’t have to worry about the dangers of driving.”

Mayes, who, along with his father, currently has joint ownership in two private aircrafts—a Piper J-3 Cub and a Cessna 150—feels that his ideal career would be that of a corporate pilot, a position that generally requires less hours of flying per week than a commercial pilot. His greatest source of motivation for that career path is his father, as he has been there throughout the process as a source of both advice and encouragement.

For other students, family has been much less of a factor when it comes to inspiration for flying.

Senior Jason Frederick, who currently has his sights set on obtaining his pilot’s license at some point this summer, has spent much of the past year learning how to fly a helicopter through the Liberty Flight School at Brandywine Airport. When he first expressed an interest in flying, however, Frederick said that he was met with a great deal of skepticism, particularly from his close friends and family.

“My goal wasn’t taken seriously at first,” he said. “It took me so long to get started because my parents wanted to make sure that I really was serious about it.”

Frederick said that he eventually decided to choose pursuing helicopters rather than planes because of their “unique and versatile nature.”

“There’s so much you can do with a helicopter that you couldn’t with a normal plane,” he said. “It gives you a lot more freedom.”

While he is not set on a career path yet, Frederick plans to study aeronautical engineering at Penn State University next year, something that he feels will help if he one day chooses a career in aviation. In addition, he said that he will continue flying throughout college, as it is a hobby that he “is still in the early stages of developing.”

While the thrill of flying is always present when these students are in the air, instructors stress the need to stay alert at all times, regardless of how safe the situation seems.

“I try to impress carefulness when I’m teaching high school students,” said Jim Nolan, a certified flight instructor who works through Brandywine Airport. “They have the same issue with driving as with flying: they’re not tuned into the risk to much and they
don’t think anything will go wrong. I have to teach them what can go wrong.”

Nolan feels that one of the greatest challenges of any flight instructor is to keep his students motivated about flying while still stressing the need for safety in the air.

“I try to motivate high school students by making the lessons interesting and different every time,” he said. “For me, teaching somebody else to fly and watching them learn is one of the most rewarding things.”

In practical terms, Nolan feels that the most difficult aspect of the learning process for students is the weather. According to Nolan, judging whether it is safe to fly or not is a skill that is acquired with years of time and practice, and it is a judgment he works hard to teach his students.

“Right now, the weather is killing me,” said junior Tyler Mazda, who has also been training for his pilot’s license and has found wind to be a challenging factor.

For Mazda, flying has very much been a family affair. He was first inspired to take up aviation by his uncle, a professional pilot and certified instructor. Currently, his uncle is also teaching him how to fly his Piper Cherokee.

“Having him teach me makes it more fun. Since I know and trust him, I feel safer than if I was with a stranger,” Mazda said.

Mazda said that he is eventually looking to become a Navy pilot, and that the skills he is learning now will be of the utmost importance when he goes to college in two years.

Back up in the air, Mayes—along with his father—surveys the ground one last time before wrapping up the day’s flying session. The three wheels of the Cub touch down quickly on the runway, bringing the aircraft to a speedy yet graceful halt.

“The second greatest thrill to man is flying; the first is landing,” Mayes professes, as he steps down from the plane’s interior, ready to return to life down below.

K.C. McConnell can be reached at kcmcconnell@stoganews.com.
Printed originally on page one of the Feb. 13, 2009 issue of The Spoke.