Essays
“Katie! When it comes to flying, you’ve gotta stack the cards in your favor!”
-Armond Ullmer, my first CFI, WWII Veteran, and recipient of the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of safe flying and professionalism.
Profound words to live by.
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I was a strange–no, “atypical” — flight student at the university flight program because I already had my private pilot’s license and instrument rating (so I could legally fly in the clouds) when I showed up. So instead of the typical Private Pilot/Bachelor’s degree scenario, I started out by training for my commercial license and…
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In October of 2025, recreational aviation got a massive shot in the arm from the FAA in the form of a new set of laws called MOSAIC. If it goes as planned, it will open doors to safer, and hopefully more affordable, flying for many people in the United States. What is MOSAIC, you ask?…
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Aviation has always demanded self-awareness. For me, understanding my own cognition has become part of understanding safety itself. Seventeen years before I was diagnosed with ADHD, I very briefly got to try my dream job: I was a corporate pilot. (And that picture really was me, not Ai!) As a full-time flight instructor at a…