“My mom says a prayer every time I go up or leave to go up,” says junior Stephen Schick, “So I don’t know if I have her exact confidence. But my family’s incredibly supportive—financially, morally.”
Schick is a pilot in training who was recently accepted to the Upwind Summer Scholarship Program, which will help pay for training expenses.
He says, “I heard about the scholarship and because my family finds it very difficult to pay for actual flight time. It’s generally around $180 for an hour in an airplane.”
Since freshman year, Schick has been training at the number one flight school in the country, the San Carlos Flight Center ground school, in preparation to become a full-fledged pilot.
Schick says, “Dan Dyer, who is the founder of San Carlos flight center-has been my instructor since freshman year of high school. Ground school for pilots is essentially like driver’s ed—it’s where you’re in the classroom, not in the airplane.”
“Then there’s flight training, which is both incredibly expensive and time consuming. I’ve been doing flight training since last September. I have 17.9 hours.”
Since his training, Schick has experienced the highs and lows of flying.
When flying, he says, “It can range from just that ecstatic feeling of shoving and throttling and barreling down the runway and taking off, to stressing about comms and freaking out on landings, or when your flight instructor puts you into a dive for no apparent reason, or when a stall accidentally swings to the left and that can be scary sometimes. But there are just so many beautiful moments—it’s a whole spectrum.”
“Landings—especially the first few times—are definitely nerve-wracking,” he says. “Coming into San Carlos with full flaps and just looking at the ground coming steadily closer is a little bit nerve-wracking sometimes. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been paranoid. It’s always been a fun experience and it’s pretty safe—especially when you have a flight instructor in the plane.”
For most, flying a plane is not a commonly shared thought or experience for people at this age.
But Schick says, “I loved the idea of flight all my life—it’s an incredibly powerful experience. A pilot’s license opens up so many opportunities—it’s unimaginable. You can get a job with it, you can travel the world with it, and it’s just incredibly fun.”
And the future of possibilities is just what Schick has in mind. “I do [see a future in aviation]—whether it’s becoming a private pilot,” he says. “I would like to get a commercial license so I can get paid to fly. It’s an incredible job opportunity to be able to do something you both massively enjoy and get paid for. I would also love to come back to the flight school and help out with the students and possibly get my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) rating.”
Schick’s aim to become a licensed pilot is driven by his love for aviation. Even in the wake of tragedies such as the Asiana and Malaysia crashes, he says, “Personally, the Malaysia airlines hasn’t affected me. It’s affected my mother considerably and my other family members because when you look at aviation from someone who spends most of their time on the ground, it’s a little bit daunting, like ‘Oh my god, this awful thing has happened.’ But there’s just so much more to flight than accidents that get broadcasted across the media.”
With his passion for aviation and his dedication to training, Schick will undoubtedly continue to fuel this passion as the 2014 winner of the Upwind Summer Scholarship.
