Saturday, February 02, 2013

Rocky River, Ohio: Teenager reaches for the sky, her pilot's license, and hopes to involve women in aviation; Premier Flight Academy at Burke Lakefront Airport (KBKL), Cleveland

COURTESY OF ALLISON CORRIGAN


Like many high school teenagers, Allie Corrigan has a busy life. The senior at Magnificat High School has the usual responsibilities most teenagers have, such as maintaining good grades, a part-time job and serving as a member of student council. 

 But Corrigan often has a far different after-school destination than most high schoolers: the Rocky River resident heads to Burke Lakefront Airport, where she attends Premier Flight Academy. She's working towards earning her pilot's license, and in her class of 10, she's not just the only teenager, she's the only female.

Corrigan said her interest in flight started at a young age; her parents would take her to the Cleveland National Air Show every year, and she said she always loved watching the planes. She began actively perusing her pilot's license after seeing an article in a local paper which featured a picture of a boy next to the plane.

"I thought that was cool," she said. "I could do that."

Corrigan said her parents have been supportive of her mission, but her father wasn't originally confident Allie could handle flying. He tried to convince her to take up a different passion, and had her take scuba diving classes during a vacation to Florida. She wasn't thrilled with scuba lessons, but after she completed them she was able to convince her father she could earn her flying license.

"I ended up teaching my dad, who is a physics major, about dive charts and navigation, so he feels much better about me flying now," Corrigan said.

Corrigan started flight classes in Fall 2011. She said earning a pilot's license is nothing like earning a driver's license, and that approximately 80 percent of those attending the academy end up dropping out. She's learning to fly single-engine, two-seat planes.

"It's crazy some of the things I have to know, like how an alternator works or the different types of clouds," Corrigan said. "I need to know it though, it's the pilot's responsibility. It could be life or death."

Corrigan said her flight instructor had cleared her for one of the final parts of getting her pilot's license: a flight called a solo-cross county, which is a three-part flight of 50 miles or more. However she had to cancel her flight due to weather, and she's trying to reschedule it.

Corrigan said it's hard to describe what flying a plane feels like.

"It feels like nothing else matters, all my troubles are left on the ground," she said. "I wish everyone could experience it."

For her part, Corrigan is trying to help other women experience the thrill she's felt flying. She attended the Wings of Women conference at Burke Lakefront Airport's International Women's Air and Space Museum last September. The conference is designed to get middle-school and high-school girls involved in aviation, but Corrigan wasn't attending as a participant. She was asked to be a mentor for the program, and speak to about 80 girls close to her own age about aviation.

"I had homecoming the night of the conference, but they were pretty understanding of my spray tan," Corrigan laughed.

She said when she arrived to the conference, the organizers thought she was a participant, and didn't initially realize she was one of the mentors. Corrigan said she also had a girl older than her in her group at the conference.

Corrigan said at the end of the conference, girls were coming up to her and telling Corrigan they wanted to be a pilot like her. Corrigan even encouraged one of the younger attendees to attend Magnificat, and later saw the girl at an open house at the high school.

Corrigan wants to spread the word about aviation, and said she was concerned that only three percent of commercial pilots are women.

"(Flying) is so much fun," she said, adding that she wished more women would consider aviation. "I think we're past the era of women just being nurses and secretaries."

Corrigan hasn't decided where she will attend college after her graduation this May, and she said she is interested in continuing to study aviation, but admits a lot of her future is still up in the air. She hopes to have her pilot's license before she graduates. She is also active in a few different service programs, including a service trip to Immokalee, FL last summer, and would like to continue to be active in service in college.

"I feel it's important to improve yourself in the time you're given," Corrigan said.


Story and Photos:   http://www.cleveland.com

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