by Brandon Stevens
Published in Midwest Flyer – August/September 2018 issue
I’d be lying if I said I dreamt of becoming a pilot as a child. Truth is, I had very limited exposure to anything that flew. I wanted to be a garbage man. It wasn’t until I became a young man that I slowly got more and more interested in airplanes.
I was never a good student growing up (I was a D student at best), and because of this, I had very low aspirations for myself. Entering high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, so I wasn’t motivated and lacked ambition. Slowly, I found myself looking up at the sky; aviation was the only thing that seemed to spark my curiosity. Then one day, my dad asked me what I was planning to do after high school. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a pilot.
We called the nearest airport and inquired about flight lessons. It was there in rural Brush, Colorado that met my first flight instructor and stepped into an airplane for the first time.
I was nervous…I was meeting a real-life pilot! He didn’t look like what I envisioned a typical pilot to look like… He was an old, bearded farmer, but he inspired me.
The second we took off, I was in awe. The muscles in my face uncontrollably force my mouth into a big smile. I couldn’t help but be in a euphoric-like state (I promise, it wasn’t hypoxia). It was this first flight that will forever be imprinted in my mind. I finally had purpose in life!
I didn’t fly much with this instructor, but I discovered my passion, and the massive new world that came with it.
Not long after discovering aviation, I graduated from high school and was diagnosed with cancer and had no idea how to cope with it. The days went by in a blur, and I felt worse and worse during the chemotherapy. The thought crossed my mind, “I won’t be able to become a pilot because of medical factors.” My wings had been clipped, and it felt awful.
The week of Christmas 2016, I had my last treatment and got the best present ever…I was cancer free! I was finally able to pick myself up, but my dreams of becoming a pilot seemed faint. I understood how important being fit was to be a pilot, and the need to have a valid medical. I thought the chances of me being able to get back up in the air were slim to none, so to spare further disappointment, I took a job as an electrician and fell back into a rut.
One thing having cancer taught me was that life is too short to be doing something I absolutely hated, so I took the leap and I applied for the Professional Pilot program at Kansas State University (KSU) Polytechnic in Salina, Kansas, and was accepted, despite my lousy grades in high school.
I began my flight training with more determination than ever before. It was at KSU that I learned what a tightly knitted community aviation was. Anytime I had a question or needed clarification on something aeronautical, there were people willing to lend their time and expertise. They wanted me to succeed as much as I wanted me to succeed.
My instructor at KSU was amazing and wasn’t afraid to show me the ropes. He was experienced and determined to help me learn. I could not have achieved what I did without his mentorship.
The hardest part has been paying for flight training or overcoming the perception that learning to fly is cost prohibitive. Yes, flight training is expensive, but it is an investment and there are plenty of scholarships and incentives available.
Probably the biggest incentive is knowing that once you land your first pilot job, you will be paid as an apprentice as you build experience, and the opportunities have never been better! But you have to be committed, and I am. I am cancer free and well on my way to realize my dreams, and hopefully I can inspire and help others to pursue theirs. Brandon Stevens (bos@ksu.edu).
