Tyler’s Tailwind

By Tyler Whitney, for Aviation Insider, EAA 1019639 January 11, 2011 — During Thanksgiving I flew to Tennessee to spend the holiday with my extended family. My trip home was on the best flight I’ve ever enjoyed on an airline. The flight was from Knoxville to Atlanta. The flight attendant was wonderful, and the pilots were just as amazing. When we got to Atlanta, the pilots had a three-hour layover, and I did as well. The first officer (who wants to remain nameless) spotted the Young Eagles shirt that I was wearing as I boarded the plane in Knoxville and invited me to the cockpit after the flight. After we landed, she and the pilot of the flight spent an hour talking about flying and career opportunities that would be available and how to obtain them. The first officer explained all the systems in the aircraft, which was a CRJ, and told me about her military career in the Air Force as a pilot as well as her flying for the regional airlines. She gave me a piece of advice that I would like to hand down to you. Don’t look at what you’ve done but look at what you want to do, and take small steps in getting to that level. That is really good advice. For example, if you want to become an airline pilot, you should map out what you need to do to get your Airline Transport Pilot and other ratings and set small, reachable goals to get you to the left seat in an airliner. After my little tour of the cockpit, I was given the opportunity to go through the checklist and shut down the aircraft systems. It was a great experience and made me look forward to getting my next rating, my instrument. Each issue, Tyler Whitney of California provides a Young Eagle-turned-Young Eagle pilot perspective on aviation. Tyler was the first Young Eagle to pass his private pilot knowledge exam after completing the Sporty's Complete Pilot Training Course.

Tyler Whitney

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