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LEWISTOWN -- Some students spend their free time playing sports, participating in clubs or relaxing with friends. However, five Mifflin County students are choosing instead to occupy their after-school hours with learning to fly.
Seniors Noah Buffington, Chris Moon, Owen Amspacker and Tucker Gill, as well as junior Jackson Flood, all are taking to the skies. The boys have been enrolled in ground school – the bookwork portion of earning a pilot's license – for over a month, at the Mifflin County Airport, and all for the sake of the future.
Although an unorthodox preparation for graduation, earning their pilot's license will greatly benefit each student.
"I want a career in aerospace engineering," Noah Buffington explained. "Learning background knowledge from the pilot's perspective is invaluable."
The other participants hope to become airline pilots or life-flight pilots. Achieving these goals takes time, so a head start will give a boost to their careers.
"Flight colleges are surprisingly very similar to normal colleges." Tucker Gill explained. "FIT for example is a college first with an aviation program. The only major difference I noticed was that the aviation department of the college seemed to operate separately from the rest of the college."
However, you don't have to attend a post-secondary school to obtain your license. You can earn the credential through private lessons and necessary course work.
"The minimum is 40 hours in the sky and you also have to pass a written test," senior Chris Moon explained.
Acknowledging the additional time it takes to learn, study for and complete the exams, these students will commit months to their ultimate goal.
For many, the fear of flying itself would deter one from dreaming to obtain a license to fly, but the MCHS members of flight school are committed to their goal and focused exclusively on execution.
In addition to completing their book work, some of the students have also already had their first lessons in the sky.
"I didn't learn much in my first lesson," Gill said. "It was more for dipping my toe into the waters to see if this was really something I wanted to do. Even though I flew over the same valley I've lived in all my life, there was something refreshing about seeing it from thousands of feet in the air. The feeling was near euphoric."
Despite the exhilarating situation of active flight, Buffington maintains level headedness and humor in the air. Discussing his thought process while flying, Buffington joked, "Only hit the ground with the wheels, preferably. In the air, only hit the air, preferably."
Pioneering the Mifflin County skies, the students participating in flight school are launching their careers early-on.
Earning a pilot's license is impressive at any age, but these high-achieving students are working toward earning their wings before the ink on their high school diplomas even dries.