As the plane begins to accelerate down the runway, Nick Pearson (11) feels nothing but shaking. Reaching a certain point of the road, the plane begins to lift off from the ground. The shaking stops. Looking down out of the window during the ascent Pearson sees the buildings he was once next to, shrink in size and a large horizon peers above the front glass.

Flying is calm in comparison to the preparation of the flight when the Piper Cherokee plane’s front panel turns on and the aircraft shakes from the pressure of the propeller. Steps from the flight preparation checklist are completed before Pearson can start his climb to the sky. “Clear!” Pearson and his instructor shout to signal that they’re ready before take off. 

As he’s up in the air, in control of the aircraft, lessons and pointers from his instructor are said over a headset.

“Keep your [plane’s] nose pointed above the horizon,” flight instructor Brandon Guilitose said.

This is a regular procedure for Pearson who takes flight about every weekend. Pearson has been fascinated by planes ever since he was 5 years old. But his interest in flying greatly increased once his older cousin joined the Air Force and boasted about how great flying was. 

Around the same time, when he was 14 years old, a family friend in the Marines introduced him to a flying program for the ages 12 through 21.

“She talked to me about Civil Air Patrol,”  Pearson said. “[Civil Air Patrol] was this program that is similar to the Air Force but it allows kids and teenagers to start flying.”

Under the Civil Air Patrol program, Pearson was able to complete his first flight at an army air base in Los Alamitos. He flew a glider flight or an engineless plane that uses currents of rising air and other weather phenomena to stay airborne after being pulled up into the air by a winch, giving the plane enough momentum to start flying, in which Pearson sat in the front seat of the two-seater plane, with his instructor sitting behind him.

“[At first] it felt like nothing was happening but 3 seconds later, the plane started moving and then we were in the air,” Pearson said. “I looked outside and it felt like we were almost going straight up [into the sky] but we were still [connected to the winch] being pulled.”

Although he was scared during the flight, Pearson loved the experience. 

“It felt like I got an energy boost,” Pearson said. “After you experience it, you just want to do it again and again.” 

Pearson said that he prefers flying himself as opposed to being on a commercial plane. 

“There’s like this feeling of freedom [when flying by yourself,]” Pearson said. “If you’re flying on a commercial plane, you don’t normally feel anything. It’s as if you were on stable ground. But when you’re in a general aviation plane, it’s tiny, and controlling it is fun because you can go low to the ground and tilt more.”

Following his interest in planes, Pearson is a part of the Aviation Club’s executive board at Westview. Through the Aviation Club, Pearson connected with Josh Yang (12) with their mutual interest in planes. 

“[Pearson] and I had met in Aviation Club a year and a half ago when we were both the only underclassmen in the club,” Yang said. “It was nice to have someone else [similar in age] to talk to about planes.”

Yang is also interested in starting the process for his pilot’s license so when Pearson suggested Yang join him in his flight lesson, Yang was on board.

“I realized that there is kind of a magic to flying by yourself,” Yang said. “We’re all used to flying in commercial aviation but general aviation, or GAs, is something different because you have more freedom and individuality as to [deciding where you want to go with it.]”

Pearson said he is interested in pursuing aviation in the future. To work towards his goal, Pearson has been flying under a student license with a private instructor. To obtain a solo flying license, he still needs to complete ground school, where he learns how to read maps, make radio calls, and about how to fly.  He will also need to get more flying hours, beyond the 20 hours he already has. To progress further into building his career, making connections with different instructors to gain more experience is a priority. 

“An instructor I got to connect with was Tom Cruise’s aviation instructor for the first “Top Gun” movie,” Pearson said. “I flew with him, and since he wanted to do a bunch of crazy stunts, I got to experience what he called a roller coaster. He took us really high in the air and then pulled us back down. I was able to feel all the G-forces and it felt like I was floating.” 

As the flight session ends, Pearson has to execute a landing. Confirming with authorities on the ground that it’s all clear to land, Pearson is given an instruction about which side he needs to come in from. After completing a set of flight landing checks, and locating the runway, Pearson prepares to land.  

“You have to be strategic about which side you turn in from, or at what point you need to go low, and keep the plane steady and lifted when actually landing,” Pearson said. 

It’s intense, he said. Once safely on the ground, he drives the plane back to where it’s originally parked and makes sure everything is back to its original state pre-flight, ready for when he does it all over again next week.