On a cloudy Wednesday afternoon, junior Hannah Cook executes her first solo flight in a Cessna 152, a small two seater plane clocking in at barely a ton. Confronted with a blinking panel of hundreds of knobs and levers, she’s a little nervous. Nonetheless, she begins her take off and completes it almost perfectly. Making three takeoffs and landings, Cook steers the plane back to Raleigh Executive Airport feeling thrilled.
“You just feel like you can do anything right then,” Cook said. “I mean, if I can fly a plane by myself, what can’t I do?”
Cook spends most of her afternoons at an airport working to earn her pilot’s license. Another student pilot, junior Graham Cleven, is also working to acquire his licence.
Cook and Cleven both have very distinct motivations behind their passion for piloting.
“Both my parents are pilots, and both my grandparents are pilots, so it was kind of like a family thing,” Cook said.
Cleven responded differently.
“My main motivation to start flying was birds,” Cleven said. “I think they have such a cool perspective of the world, and I just wanted to experience that.”
In order to become a licensed pilot, Cook and Cleven had to undergo a medical examination to prove that they are in good health. They are in the process of obtaining 45 hours of flight training and attending ground school, an instructional class that teaches pilots about how a plane works, weather conditions and other things of that nature. Lastly, they will take both a written and in-air flight test to be certified to fly planes both alone and with passengers.
By the time Cook receives her private license, she will have logged over 150 hours of flight time, which is 100 shy of the hours required to receive a commercial piloting license. However, Cook has no interest in becoming a commercial pilot.
Despite flying’s relative safety, the fear of crashing or making a mistake is still a very real one.
“You are in a tin can powered by a lawnmower engine at 3,000 feet above the ground,” Cleven said.
Sarina Houston, Cook’s flight instructor at the Wings of Carolina Flight Club, believes that regardless of personal fears, it is very safe for teens to pilot.
“It’s not any more or less safe for teens to fly than any other person,” Houston said. “In fact, young people often make very good pilots. Young people tend to absorb information quickly and easily, and they often learn the necessary skills at a more rapid pace than adults, which serves them well most of the time.”
For both Cook and Cleven, starting to pilot planes was truly a leap of faith.
“You have to have the courage to go out there and do something you’ve never done before and succeed in it,” Cook said. “If you don’t succeed, you’re putting your life on the line.”
Houston discussed the benefits of being a teen pilot.
“The airplane doesn’t care how old you are, where you went to high school, how much money you make or if you had a bad day,” Houston said. “As a teen, it’s refreshing to be in an environment where everyone is constantly learning—young or old, rich or poor, experienced or inexperienced pilots—where you feel like you add value to the community, even at a young age.”
Both Cook and Cleven agree that flying planes is definitely not for everyone, but if you’re willing to commit to it, it’s truly a rewarding experience.
“Flying makes me feel empowered,” Cook said. “Just being able to do something ‘larger-than-life’ gives me the confidence to do anything.”
– By Ava Johnson