I ALWAYS THOUGHT I COULD BE By Shalyn C. Marchetti
A PILOT
I always thought I could be a pilot. Flying has been in my family for three generations now, working on a fourth. My mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, sister, and brother-in-law are all pilots. I had plenty of positive role models when it came to aviation. However, until I hit 18, I had very little interest. I would be lying if I said flying didn’t scare me a little. I’m not 100% sure why 18 changed that in me, but suddenly it went from something I thought to something I knew. Flying didn’t come easily at first; it does for very few people. But, it grew into something I could manage, then something I could easily control. Nonetheless, my first solo was nothing shy of terrifying. I had known it was coming; but still, when the instructor got out of the Cub, I’m sure my face went white. Les, my instructor, turned back to me and said these words which I will never forget, “Some people believe that if God intended us to fly, he would have given us wings. I think they’re wrong. If God had intended us to stay on the ground, He would have given us roots, and I don’t see any. Go have fun.” As a flight instructor myself now, those words are passed on to all of my students before their first solo. As he walked away and signaled me to go, I somehow managed the courage to push the throttle forward. Next thing I knew, the plane was airborne! In downwind, I like to joke that I had a minor panic attack. The realization that me, and only me, was going to bring this plane down (and in one piece lest my father murder me) was terrifying. But, I survived. And, in October of the next year, I was calling my dad with happy tears, letting him know he had another pilot in the family. Over the next year, I tried to figure out what to do with my life. I finished an Associate of Arts degree at the local community college, and I was working as a “rampie” at the local airport, loading bags for a very small regional airline named Cape Air. Working for Cape Air as a rampie was one of the best jobs I could have had. Many of the pilots I worked with took me under their wing, and I learned a lot from them. I spent about a year at Cape Air before one of the pilots told me to go do something about my ratings.
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