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| Student Pilot Solos |
Sunday, December 14th |
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Most pilots flying aircraft emblazoned with the National Guard emblem are military airmen in their twenties or thirties piloting UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters or C-130 Hercules airplanes. But, in Kentucky, a high school teenager is often at the controls of another kind of aircraft sporting the National Guard logo – a 66-foot tall hot air balloon.
15-year-old D. J. Stickler, a sophomore student at Fern Creek High School, has been flying the aircraft advertising the Kentucky National Guard for nearly two years. He has accumulated over 38 hours of flight with his instructor and recently flew the balloon solo from Simpsonville to Finchville in Shelby County. He is on track to complete his flight training this year and take his check ride for a private pilot’s certificate with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight examiner when he turns 16 in January.
What do his parents think when he is up in the sky? “They feel pretty confident in me, but the were a little nervous when I flew solo” he admitted. While the inherent dangers of flight are always in the back of his mind, “If you check and recheck things, you don’t have to worry,” tells Stickler.
D.J. got interested in ballooning about four years ago at the Adam Matthews Balloon Festival at Bowman Field in Louisville. There he met Indiana balloonist John Daugherty and was invited to help crew with his team during a balloon glow. “I got see the whole process,” said Stickler. He was so fascinated with the sport, he and his mother negotiated a crew position for him with the Kentucky National Guard balloon team operated by Aero Force Balloons LLC. He soon learned how to set up and inflate a hot air balloon and earned his crewmember pin through the Balloon Federation of America.
As part of that crew, D.J. occasionally got the opportunity to fly aboard the balloon as a crewmember when space was available. When he turned 14, the aspiring pilot received a student certificate from the FAA and signed up for a six-week ground school to learn about fundamentals of flight, safety, weather, air traffic control, and navigation. After completion of the course, Stickler confidently passed a comprehensive written test and started flight training in the balloon.
What is the hardest part of flying according to D.J.? “Landing! And figuring out where you are going,” he added. But, D.J. knows where he wants to go with his ballooning career. “I plan on getting my commercial license and getting my first balloon after high school,” he said. “And then maybe taking engineering in college.”
Until then, people can look up to the skies over Kentucky and maybe see that red, white, and blue “1-800 GO GUARD” balloon drifting in the wind with D.J. Stickler at the controls flying his dream.
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