• Sections
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Bridal
    • Community
    • Education
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • MVMA
    • Perspectives
    • Travel
  • Shop Local
    • Arts & Culture
    • Bridal
    • Community
    • Dining & Cuisine
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Financial & Professional Services
    • Florists, Gift & Specialty Shops
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Real Estate
  • Calendar
  • Dining Guide
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Login

Merrimack Valley Magazine

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Community
  • Education
  • Fashion
  • Food & Drink
  • Health & Wellness
  • Home & Garden
  • Perspectives
  • Travel
← Back

Aces High

Katie Lovett
photography Kevin Harkins
Published April 11, 2020
Share:

Teen Pilots Discover the Joys and Rewards of Flight

Football season was over for 2017, and Kim Marotta knew her son Ryan would need a new activity to keep busy. 

So she asked Ryan, then 16, what he’d like to try. His answer was surprising. 

The Windham, N.H., teen, who had only recently gotten his driver’s license, said he wanted to take flying lessons.

“It was different for sure,” Kim Marotta recalls. “It came out of nowhere.”

While her son had always been interested in movies such as “Top Gun,” he hadn’t expressed a desire to fly. Kim and her husband, Cliff, did some research and found Eagle East Aviation, a flight training school at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover.

Ryan took an introductory “discovery flight” and was hooked.

 

Last summer, shortly after graduating from high school, the 19-year-old earned his pilot’s license. He’s now in his first year at Kent State University in Ohio, studying aeronautics, with plans to become a professional pilot. Marotta is among a growing number of teens and young adults who are seeking a pilot’s license when most of their peers are still mastering their ability to drive. 

His first few lessons were eye-opening, Marotta says. Single-engine planes fly slowly and low to the ground. From his seat, he’s able to see some of the towns he’s flying over. It’s a perspective you can’t get from behind a steering wheel while battling traffic, he says. 

“Up there, everything gets simplified,” Marotta says.

Still, the time he took the controls on his first solo flight was a terrifying couple of moments, he says. 

“[You think], ‘it’s all on me, I’m really going by myself,’ ” he says. But, after about five minutes he settled down and it was a smooth ride.

Marotta and his family appreciate the friendships they have made through Eagle East Aviation, and the support they have received from others, including Dave DeVries of Windham, an advocate for aviation culture who offers scholarships to students. 

That support enabled Marotta to pursue his dream — and get a boost toward his future career. He began his freshman year of college with some credits.

Ryan Marotta stands with Tim Campbell, owner of Eagle East Aviation in North Andover.

After acquiring his certification, Ryan took his first passengers on separate flights — his mother, Kim, his grandmother, Judy Marotta, and his older brother, Andrew. During lessons, he’d ask Eagle East Aviation owner Tim Campbell to take some photos of him behind the controls, Ryan says, which he sent to Andrew, who was studying abroad, just to show him that he wasn’t the only sibling doing some astounding things.

Flying in a Cessna with her son at the controls was an incredible experience, Kim Marotta says.

Was she nervous?

“Honestly, no,” she says, recalling how a more confident Ryan explained all the steps he was taking, as well as what they were seeing out the windows. 

Still, she jokes, Ryan can’t do his own laundry, yet “he can go in a plane and fly from here to Maine.”

As for other passengers, Ryan will wait a little longer before taking his friends up for a trip, but they are all impressed — both with his certification and the fact that he already has a career path he wants to pursue.

“They joke around and call me ‘Fly Guy,’ ” he says. 

Griffin Stella started taking lessons at Eagle East when he was just 15. He believes aviation has taught him skills that go beyond how to control a plane, such as the ability to think clearly under pressure.

Griffin Stella, 18, has long dreamed of a career as a fighter pilot. A 2019 graduate of Andover High School, he started taking flying lessons at Eagle East Aviation when he was 15 and completed his training in just under two years. 

Making his first solo flight (at a distance of over 50 nautical miles) was “a surreal experience,” Stella says. “It’s the first time you’re dependent on yourself.”

But then, he says, you get to a point in the trip when you relax and start to take in the sights and experience of it all.

“It’s a really beautiful thing,” Stella says. 

In addition to providing knowledge on how to operate a plane, flying lessons teach many other valuable tools, Stella says, including how to be resilient and calm in tough situations. Flying also requires an understanding of meteorology; pilots need to learn about clouds, weather patterns, precipitation and wind speeds.

“Flying is such a great thing to have on your resume,” Stella says. 

Success stories like Marotta’s and Stella’s motivate Campbell. The flight school draws interest from many young people, he says, including some who intern. 

For those who want to fly, Eagle East Aviation accepts students starting at around age 15 1/2.

“In Massachusetts, you can solo an airplane before you can drive a car,” Campbell says. “It’s a skill you can take with you your whole life.”    

Share:
Related Articles
12 Days of Holiday Gift Guide – Day 3!
12 Days of Holiday Gift Guide – Day 5!
12 Days of Holiday Gift Guide – Day 6!
Little Bits Meets Eight Great! Christmas Edition

Current Issue

Subscribe

Who We Are

mvm is the region’s premiere source of information about regional arts, culture and entertainment; food, dining and drink; community happenings, history and the people who live, work, play and make our area great.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Sections

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Bridal
  • Community
  • Education
  • Fashion
  • Food & Drink
  • Health & Wellness
  • Home & Garden
  • MVMA
  • Perspectives
  • Travel

Links

  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • About Us
  • Regular Contributors
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Contact

© Copyright 2020 512 Media Inc, All rights reserved.

Orangetheory Fitness Chelmsford @DrumHill / (978) 577-5901

Orangetheory Fitness Methuen @The Loop / (978) 620-5850

Orangetheory Fitness Chelmsford @DrumHill / (978) 577-5901

Orangetheory Fitness Methuen @The Loop / (978) 620-5850

*Valid on new memberships during the month of September 2020.

 

Newsletter Signup

MERRIMACK VALLEY TODAY: Noteworthy. Local. News. (Launching May 2021)
Wellness Wednesdays
Eight Great Things To Do This Weekend (Thursdays)
NoteWorthy - Happenings, Movers & Shakers (Sundays)

Orangetheory Methuen is celebrating it’s one year anniversary with an
Open House, Saturday June 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Join your friends and neighbors to learn more about the fastest growing workout sensation in the nation. Tour the studio. Meet the coaches. Enter to win a 10 pack of classes. The first 20 people who sign up for a free class at the event will receive a free bonus class, no obligation. 

Click here to learn more! 

Click here to schedule your FREE CLASS in Chelmsford @DrumHill / (978) 577-5901
Click here to schedule your FREE CLASS in Methuen @The Loop / (978) 620-5850

*Free Class for first-time visitors and local residents only.