Sam Frye

I learned about the Williamsburg Aviation Scholarship Program through my school’s guidance department. Ever since earning the aviation merit badge in Boy Scouts, I have been infatuated with flight. Until learning about the Williamsburg Aviation Scholarship Program, the extremely high cost of flight training was the main factor behind not getting my license. But WASP was the solution to that problem. Ever since applying for and receiving the scholarship, the only thing stopping me from flying has been the weather.

Flight training has been one of the, if not the most, rewarding and challenging experiences of my life. Flying is the first time a person is forced to think and operate a vehicle in a third dimension. We are used to driving cars or maybe even boats, but flying a plane is a whole new beast.

Of course having a good Flight Instructor, or CFI, is key. Some say flying is an art, and I would agree with them. The more you practice and get your body tuned into the way your plane moves and reacts to your commands, the better a pilot you will become. The cues you learn to recognize, like an excessive sink rate or funny sound from the engine, are all parts of becoming a pilot. When I first started flight training, my mom would ask me if I had fun that day. And I would tell her no, but I enjoyed it. To me, fun is carefree and means you have no responsibility. Enjoying something means you have to put concentrated effort and hard work into that subject, but the results of that effort are beyond your expectations. The things I have done, seen, and experienced required hard work and practice, but were very worthwhile.

As I continue on in my life, I want to pursue a career in aviation. As a Warhill High School junior, I will soon be going to a college and then into my career of choice. I hope to join an AFROTC program at an in state college, like Virginia Tech or JMU, and get a degree in a STEM field. After college, I would like to fly in the military for several years, where after I would discharge and fly commercial. All of these dreams are far off, but the Williamsburg Aviation Scholarship Program has given me a leg up and has seriously confirmed my lifelong dream to spend the rest of my life flying.