“I don’t know why they’re trusting a 16 year old with a $650,000 plane,” junior Aneesh Tak said.

Tak is in the process of receiving a pilot license–before he graduates high school.

Learning to fly a plane isn’t a typical extracurricular, but for a handful of high school students, it’s a dream turning into reality.

“I knew I wanted to be a pilot when I traveled for soccer and had conversations with pilots,” senior Carter Ackerman said. “I am involved in Aviation Technology at Washington Tech, a class you take when you want to become a pilot.” 

At Liberty, Ackerman is not alone in this desire; Liberty has many students in the process of receiving a pilots license, for a variety of reasons.

Juniors Aiden Brown and Mia Nelson both have familial ties to aviation and want to follow in their families’ footsteps.

“Flying is a family legacy,” Brown said. “My great-grandfather has a plaque in the Museum of Flight about how he started a flying company, Galvin Flying. I also worked there before it shut down.”

Nelson’s parents are both involved in aviation. So, ever since she was little, she wanted to be a pilot.

Also in the process of receiving their pilot license is junior Simon Calihan.

Learning to become a pilot takes many steps.

“At my program, you start with ground school where you learn how the plane works, like what all the different knobs, dials, and levers do,” Calihan said. “Then, everyday you’ll go out and take a test flight. You’ll first learn how to turn the plane left, and then how to roll a plane right. From there it’ll get more advanced and, in the end, you will solo.”

(Soloing is when you fly a plane by yourself without an instructor.)

“I was a little bit nervous when I got in there because I was used to flying with my instructor. That day was also really hot and sunny, so when I came over the tarmac, the winds would lift the plane, making me have to be able to adjust my power,” Calihan said. “I’ve done it before, but I hit a pocket of hot air and it kept pushing my plane up, so I was a little bit high when I was coming towards the runway.”

He isn’t the only Liberty pilot in training that has gotten stuck in sticky situations while flying. 

“One scary experience I’ve had is in Ephrata, Washington. There’s lots of crop dusters there that don’t have GPS and don’t communicate. The airport I was at didn’t have a communications tower, so I came close to colliding with a crop duster once,”  Tak said.

Tak started his flight program in 2022 and intends to go into an aviation career path.

There are lots of pathways to make aviation your career. For one, it’s a major in college.

“I’ve gotten into Montana State University, Utah State, and University of Nebraska Omaha for aviation,” Ackerman said. “I’m still waiting to hear from Oklahoma.”  

The process of earning a pilots license also has a variety of possible starting points.

“I got into my pilot program through this volunteer organization called Civil Air Patrol. It’s government funded, so it’s completely free and, once you turn 16, they’ll pay for your flight training at a number of different flight schools around the nation,” Calihan said. “The program I went to was a 10 day long Flight Academy in Ephrata, Washington. There, you and four others are assigned to a plane, even if you have no prior flight experience.”

“You can get into flying immediately. You can go on an hour-long introductory flight where you go up with an instructor and they teach you the basics on how to start and fly a plane,” Ackerman said.

“Reach out or research different flight schools in the area, especially ones near Boeing Field, Auburn municipal, and places in Seattle,” Brown said. “I am going to a school in Seattle and it’s a program where you stay for three weeks and intensively study and learn about aviation. In this program you take tests and take part in ground school. For actually flying, you would have to outsource to other companies.”

There is also lots to love about piloting. 

Brown likes the navigation practice he gets to do, the view he has when flying, and the good salary that’ll come with being a pilot.

“I like getting on the radio and just trolling people by using different voices and accents,” Calihan said. “But I also like the steep turns, and the take offs and landing are really exhilarating. It’s fun to start accelerating then pull the throttle all the way in so the engine starts to sound like it’s going to explode but then you lift off the ground.”

Ackerman loved his first introductory flight.

“My favorite part is either soloing or stall practice,” Tak said.

(Stall practice is when the plane is at a point of no lift and starts to nose dive and the pilot must navigate the plane into recovery.)

Nelson hasn’t flown yet but is in an online ground school and has a full scholarship for a national flight academy in Florida.

“I can’t wait to fly and be able to see the beautiful scenery and sunsets from a pilot’s position,” Nelson said.