Kaden Knott (12) looked out of the window from his seat in the cockpit, admiring the sunset from up in the sky. Growing up watching his cousin’s passion for planes, he knew aviation was the right choice for him, too. Knott began his training when he was a sophomore through an airplane rental company called Plus One Flyers and his cousin as his certified flight instructor.
“I’ve always liked watching [planes], even when I was 2 or 3 years old,” Knott said “I liked watching the planes fly over the air show and that kind of stuff. When [my cousin] went to college and she started flying, I realized it’s actually a possible career path if I start early and don’t wait until it’s too late. I just thought that if she can do it, then I can do it too, and it’s a very achievable thing, but it’s not a thing that a lot of people have the opportunity to do. So I might as well take advantage of it.”
Knott’s cousin, 23 went to Purdue University where she studied aviation and earned all the necessary piloting certification. She is currently working towards becoming a commercial pilot.
Twice a week, Knott dedicates his afternoons to flight training and comprehending the fundamental aspects of flying.
“I’m still kind of in the basic stage,” he said. “So I’m mostly learning how to fly, how everything works, and how the different components work and how the plane moves in the air. But eventually I’ll start learning how to communicate with the air traffic controllers and talk to other planes and understand what they’re saying. Aviation talks in a sort of code, so it’s not only learning how to fly, it’s learning what everything means and how to communicate, especially if something goes wrong.”
Knott said he plans to earn his private pilot’s certification by the end of his senior year, and hopes to fulfill all the requirements before he goes to college. From there, he said his ideal path is to attend a school with a one-for-one FAA certified flight program that can help him simultaneously study and train as a pilot.
“[The program] teaches you everything about aviation and networking,” Knott said. “It’s a more in-depth pilot school. I could go off on my own, but then I would have to figure out everything, like learning how to talk to airlines and how to get a job, whereas if I go to these programs, they kind of give you a path so you just put in the work to follow the steps.”
His favorite part about flying, Knott said, is the sense of freedom he feels when he’s in the cockpit.
“You get to see everything from a new perspective when you’re flying, everything else seems so small,” Knott said. “You’re just flying, focusing on not falling out of the sky and you’re very in the moment. You’re not worried about what happened two hours ago or what somebody said to you last week. You get really focused and can kind of be in the moment, communicating with the air traffic controller and looking out for other planes. You just realize that everything’s fine.”
Using his passion for planes as fuel, Knott revamped Westview Aviation Club (WVAC) late last year with friends in hopes of expanding the aviation community at Westview. Soon after, he met co-president Quinn Padgett (11), who has helped him manage the club since the school year began.
“I founded [WVAC] with a couple of my friends who actually don’t know much about aviation,” Knott said. “But then I met Quinn, and together, we’re trying to grow the aviation community at Westview. I’ve noticed that we actually have a lot of people who want to fly and are flying already, which is very cool to me. We want to try to have more community input. [We want to] get people to talk instead of just our exec team and get to know each other better. Ultimately, our goal is to just create a better aviation community.”
On Sept. 27, Knott, Padgett, and their WVAC team had their first off-campus excursion at the Miramar Airshow, where they volunteered with March Air Force’s KC-135 shadow tanker to assist military aviation professionals and immersed themselves in the flight operations. One of the main tasks they were assigned was monitoring the boom tube, a refueling tube at the back of a refueling plane. Shadowing the boom operator, they saw what it was like to communicate with connecting planes as if they were in mid-air.
“We mostly worked with crowd control and helping out with menial tasks, but I spent a good amount of time shadowing the boom operator, who was giving facts and answering questions about the boom tube and what it’s like,” Padgett said. “I was also able to answer questions, and I helped give the last tour of the plane because I’d learned so much about the plane from working on it.”
Padgett, who has had ties to flying throughout her whole life, said she was born for the skies. Influenced by her father, she said that her exposure to aviation has helped shape her into the person she is today.
“My dad’s been in the Air Force since before I was born, and so I grew up in the aviation world,” Padgett said. “I went on my first flight when I was two months old. I’ve always been involved in the community, and it’s always been in the back of my mind as a career option. I went through different phases, but I’ve always been drawn to aviation. The first time I was sure about the fact that aviation is what I really want to do was when I took my discovery flight, and I actually got up in the air for the first time. My instructor called me a natural.”
Padgett took her first flight, her discovery flight, at 14 years old. Unlike Knott, Padgett plans to follow a different path and obtain her private pilot licensing on her own.
“I want to get my private license as soon as possible, while doing high school alongside it, so that I can focus on getting my instructor’s license and then eventually getting hired by an airline,” she said. “I plan on doing college alongside aviation, just on a less rigorous scale, something like online courses at a community college to get my general education and then transferring.”
Both co-presidents have aligned views on their vision for WVAC. As a junior, Padgett carries the future of the club next year, but said she hopes to build a legacy that will follow her post-graduation.
“I’m super passionate about aviation, and I really wanted to share that passion with others,” Padgett said. “It’s really hard to get into the aviation world, and I’ve been so lucky to have my dad as someone [who] can guide me through it and introduce it. But there are other people who are really interested that don’t have the resources that I do, that don’t know where to start, and I think it would be a really good opportunity to be able to show someone the ropes and get them started.”
Padgett’s passion isn’t fading soon, she said. Aviation gives her a chance to explore beyond the confines of her life, and she said she wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
“It gives me a sense of freedom, like you’re literally soaring above it all, and it’s just my happy place,” Padgett said. “It’s super calming, and you get paid to travel the world and see different cultures and do all these cool things. The quality of life as a pilot is so good. You are just looking down at everything, and it feels so far away, so you can just disconnect from the world and be in your own zone. It’s just you and the roar of the engine.”
