First Flight

It all began after college, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and move from Colorado to Las Vegas, NV after graduation to start my career in the heavy civil construction industry. Why Las Vegas? I didn’t know, I wanted to experience something new and the job offer I received stood out from the rest.

After Some time in Vegas I learned there isn’t much to do in the desert, unless you are a big gambler which I was not. It was very different from where I had grown up.

After watching constant youtube videos of Mike Patey, along with other well known Youtube Pilot influencers, I gained the courage to call up a local flight school and give it a shot. I expressed my concerns about my colorblindness but my instructor insisted that it would be a non-issue for becoming a Sport Pilot.

Ill never forget the first flight I went on, 7/14/2018 happened to be a morning fly out to grab breakfast. We flew from KVGT down to A20 (Sun Valley) which had a 3,700’ x 42’ wide runway. Flying in an evektor sportstar, a small little plane that has a max takeoff weight of 1.320lbs! The approach into the airport was incredible, my instructor let me fly the majority of the flight with minimum input, but as we were on approach to that little runway I gave him the controls as we approached what looked to be a runway that wouldn’t allow us much error. That feeling as we sunk down over the threshold, wheels touched the ground and we came to a stop only halfway down the runway was incredible. Shocked at how we just went from flying along at 70MPH to safely on the ground, my instructor made it look easy as could be. I was hooked and couldn’t wait to land the plane myself. Approach to landings became my new favorite thrill and I couldn’t wait to get back in the plane.