Pushing the throttle full power, junior Jackson Skelly accelerates the plane down the runway. The propeller spins faster and faster, and the world quickly falls away as the front wheel lifts off the ground. The back wheels follow, and the plane tilts up, climbing into the big, blue sky. 

For Jackson and sophomore Nathan Lio, both students at flight school WAir Aviation, learning to fly fulfills a deep passion for aviation and marks the beginning of their career as a professional pilot. 

Jackson began taking lessons consistently in January 2022 after a discovery flight in eighth grade where a professional flew him past the Chicago skyline. He got hooked. He always had an interest in different airplane models and enjoyed playing Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, so the chance to take over the controls of a real plane was the next logical step. 

Nathan started flying two years ago and had a similar start to Jackson. 

“I was always fascinated with aviation, but then I started Googling around, like, actually able to fly, and that’s what I kind of took it beyond just Microsoft Flight Simulator.”   

Jackson is working toward his student pilot license, so he tries to fly as often as he can — around once a week.    

“I’ve 25 hours, so not everything is kind of burned into my head yet. So if I’m not flying consistently every weekend, I forget stuff,” Jackson said. “Especially ’cause I’m starting on landings now, so kind of missing one week there would be like, ‘Wait, how do I fly this pattern again?’”

To obtain a student license, the Federal Aviation Administration requires a professional’s endorsement and groundwork knowledge of regulation, weather, aerodynamics and ability to perform certain maneuvers. At WAir, this process is divided into four stages with a flight and ground check at each step to prepare students for the license exam. 

Nathan already has his student license, which allows him to fly alone, and is working towards 40 hours of flying to receive his private pilot license when he turns 17. Since he has flying proficiency, he flies every other week to keep up his skills, biding his time for when he is old enough to get more licenses. 

While Nathan and Jackson’s experience has been fairly smooth, it hasn’t been without some turbulence. Jackson’s first flight school, Windy City Aviation, closed unexpectedly last November, so he didn’t fly for over two months. And for both, learning the groundwork of flying can be dense and technical to comprehend. However, their diligence has paid off. 

Benjamin Councell, Jackson’s flight instructor at WAir, said Jackson’s attentiveness has made him a pleasure to teach. 

“He definitely absorbs the instruction well, so he can absorb what I say and then do it,” Mr. Councell said. “Versus some people you really have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out a way to communicate what I’m trying to explain or demonstrate.” 

Additionally, Mr. Councell was pleasantly surprised that on the first day of instruction, Jackson could fly using physical aviation charts, rather than iPads. 

“It was impressive to see at that stage — stage one early in his flying career — he can already fly via charts,” Mr. Councell said. “We like that fundamental because we have technology, but should that fail, it’s nice to know that you can do that and fly around without being lost in the air.” 

For both Jackson and Nathan, flying has felt surprisingly natural. 

“That’s one of the things I was kind of surprised about when I started flying, like it was very natural to me,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Whoa, this is so new, this is such a crazy feeling,’ and just this just felt normal to me.” 

Nathan said flying provides him with a new perspective of the world.

“It’s really cool to be able to just capture that moment in the air where you can just like see everything,” Nathan said. “You’re up like thousands of feet in the sky going super fast and you’re the ones in control of it.” 

For their next stages in the world of aviation, Nathan wants to join the Air Force, while Jackson wants to major in engineering in college, but both want to eventually pilot  commercial airliners. 

While they currently fly two-seater Cessna aircraft at a small airport north of O’Hare, Nathan and Jackson’s aviation aspirations are just beginning to take off.