The sky is the limit for student pilots
“I can fly anywhere in the world,” Matyas Pallai, senior, said, “wherever I want to go with all my friends.”
On Jan. 28 of this year, Pallai got his pilot’s license from Channel Islands Aviation at the Camarillo Airport. Pallai has been working towards his license since mid-2014.
“You got to go through a lot of training. Took me about a year and half, a lot of hard work with school, sports, and all,” Pallai said.
In addition to a 17-year-old age requirement, learning to fly requires a series of measures. Pallai had to study for two tests: a three hour oral exam and a 60 question test. He had to score 80 percent or better on these tests to pass.
Anna Cismaru and Cade Thomson, juniors, are currently training to get their licenses at Channel Islands Aviation at Camarillo Airport by taking both online classes and practicing flying with instructors.
“We often just go around and do take off and landing, takeoff and landing, over and over,” Cismaru said, “And then we’ll practice stalls which are like when the airflow gets disrupted over the wing and you’re kind of falling from the sky, but not really. That’s really terrifying until you get used to it. Also slow flight which is flying at 50 knots or lower, and not stalling.”
“Right now I’m planning for my 3rd cross country flight,” Thomson said, “You don’t actually go across the country – but what you do is make a flight plan … Right now, I’m planning a trip up to Santa Maria with a stop at Santa Barbara on the return leg.”
Flying has its own unique challenges. “The easiest thing is just flying straight and level because you are not really doing anything. The plane definitely does just fly itself if you set it up right. And you just kind of look out the window and enjoy the scenery,” Cismaru said. According to Cismaru, landing the plane is far more difficult because of the abundance of procedures that must be taken care of at once.
Now that he has his pilot’s license, Pallai is able to follow different paths: both in flight, and in life.
“There’s different routes you can take,” Pallai said, “You can go military. Right now I’m doing civilian stuff, (and) I have to get a few more licenses before I can be an airline pilot.”
In addition to these restrictions, Pallai’s license only allows him to fly single engine planes and only over land. He also can not be paid as a private pilot due to restrictions from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Cismaru and Thomson also plan on working in the aviation industry in the future. “I feel very lucky because not a lot of kids are able to do what I’m doing and I can’t imagine what I’d do with my life if I didn’t have flying,” Thomson said.
Photo from Maty Pallai/With Permission
