Past and current recipients of the Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarship, presented in partnership between CJP and the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation to support these students’ aviation-related studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) campuses in Prescott, AZ and Daytona Beach, FL, recently updated CJP about their schoolwork, summer plans, and progressions towards their aviation careers. – Ed.

Yann Bosch, 2014 Scholarship Recipient

I hope the beginning of summer is treating you all well, with lots of flying during this great weather. Summer is a very busy time at the airlines and I am feeling the brunt of the increased schedule. I am flying close to 100 hours this month as a First Officer at SkyWest Airlines where I fly the CRJ aircraft. The industry average is about 75 hours a month, but I choose to fly more because as soon as I gain 1000 hours at SkyWest, I will upgrade to captain. I project to reach that goal in early 2018 at which time I would become a captain less than two years after joining the company. Historically, upgrades from First Officer to Captain have taken upwards of 8 years, but with the lack of pilots in the industry, the tide is changing. I am based at LAX and am enjoying my time here very much, although I do often miss the Caribbean where I was last working when flying the Pilatus PC-12 for a charter operator.

On some of the longer flights I often find myself reflecting on what brought me to where I am today, and I know the opportunities I received from the CJP Scholarship played a large role. It sparked my interest in corporate aviation and opened me up to the endless opportunities on that side of the industry. I decided to begin my career with the airlines because it was the fastest way for me to build multi-engine jet time, in hopes of one day using that experience to transition into flying for a corporate flight department, charter operator, or private owner. I am continuing to look for opportunities to fly the PC-12 for Part 91 owners and operators as well as researching opportunities to fly a Citation as SIC, in addition to my airline flying, to stay involved in the other side of the industry.

Thank you all so much for your support of the CJP Scholarship Program. Please remember that it really does make an enormous difference for the students selected. I hope to be able to attend some regional events or perhaps the annual convention, schedule permitting, and look forward to seeing you all there.

Dakota Foster, 2015 Scholarship Recipient

I cannot even wrap my head around how quickly the past six months have flown by! After 3 1/2 short years, I have graduated from Embry-Riddle! I received my Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Science, with a minor in Aviation Safety on May 8, 2017. I graduated for the 3rd straight term on the Dean’s List as well. Although I will not miss group projects or “busy work”, I will definitely miss the discipline and accountability that school provides. When the funds are there, I would like to do my MBA online through ERAU or another school. I am a huge believer in the idea that you can never stop learning, and that is why I would like to possibly continue on with obtaining a MBA.

I was flight instructing at a local school in Ormond Beach, however, with a full class schedule and a family emergency, I decided to leave that job and focus on my family and my education. In April, I was able to complete my multi-engine commercial rating. I learned how to fly the DA-42VI and I racked up a “whopping” 21 hours in the Diamond. I really enjoyed flying that plane, and I look forward to gaining more multi-engine experience wherever I can find it! It is absolutely amazing that in less than four years, I went from having zero flight hours and no prior experience, to now holding my Instrument, Commercial (ASEL, AMEL) and Certified Flight Instructor. I still have a lot of time left to build before hitting the airlines, but I hope to gain those hours through meaningful instruction or whatever opportunity comes knocking.

Earlier this summer I was able to spend some quality time with my family. I did not go home over the Thanksgiving or Christmas break because I had to flight instruct, but I was able to spend a few weeks at home after graduation. We were able to move my father home to be cared for in Home Hospice, and I was able to see both of my brothers be awarded various honors in their spring sports and academics. I like to believe that I have slightly influenced my little brothers when it comes to future careers. Canyon, now a senior, is considering engineering (likely aerospace), and Hunter, now a sophomore, is looking into flight training. Now that I have returned to Daytona, I am on the search for a new flight instruction job. I recently applied to Epic Flight Academy in New Smyrna Beach, and when the funds are there for me to obtain my Certified Flight Instructor-Instrument (CFI-I), I hope that more job opportunities will arise. Although I am not quite set on flight instructing, I will be happy to hold any job so long as I am in the air! On June 26th, I am heading out to Salt Lake City, Utah for orientation into the SkyWest Cadet Program. SkyWest is the most appealing regional airline to me for many reasons, but I am also considering a few other regionals as well. I really enjoyed my time interning at United Airlines and since I still keep in contact with the pilots there, I will definitely be choosing a regional that will help to get me back there one day.

With the recent passing of Mr. Hoover, I am still so grateful for all that CJP and Mr. Hoover has done and continues to do for those past/present scholars. I know that when the time is right, I too will be able to give back to those younger aviators and help them achieve anything they put their minds too. From the bottom of my heart, thank you CJP for all that you continue to do!

Anna Robinson, 2015 Scholarship Recipient

Hello CJP! In the past few months, so many things have happened – it’s been quite an eventful Spring! In February, I was accepted into the SkyWest Pathway Program as a Cadet and got to attend orientation and tour their facilities in Salt Lake City. It’s been a fantastic experience to explore my next career steps as I watch my hour count climb! Throughout this semester, I’ve continued flight instructing for Riddle and have had the honor of signing off seven students for checkride, all of whom passed on their first attempt. It’s a proud moment when a student’s hard work pays off. Another two of my students are going up for checkride soon so cross your fingers for them! Also, this past May I graduated from ERAU with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Science, summa cum laude. It was an absolute blast as I got to walk with the fabulous Dakota Foster!

In May I was also upgraded to teach commercial and CFI students so my student demographic has changed more from instrument applicants to commercial applicants. It’s no Citation, but the Piper Arrow is another fun plane to add to the repertoire. My Multi Add-on training took a little break when my instructor left to go fly Hawkers so I am going to be starting that training again soon. I just got paired with another instructor and hope to be flying multi-engines PIC by summer’s end! My summer plans include flying, flying, and more flying with a dash of work and beach somewhere in there.

I hope your summer festivities are full of blue skies and tailwinds!

Brooke Harrington, 2017 Scholarship Recipient

This summer has been off to a wonderful start! Fellow scholarship recipient Kimberly Rangel Martinez and I recently returned from the CJP regional event in Mackinac Island, MI. As you may know, there are no cars on the island, so for the first time I traveled by horse-drawn carriage. It felt as if we had traveled back in time! It was definitely the slower way to travel around the island, but it was so cool being surrounded by such majestic creatures.

While we had a pretty busy schedule, we had some time to travel around the island on a few tours. It was a delight to learn all about the island’s history. We had the pleasure of listening to several guest speakers over the weekend. I learned so very much over this short time and I’m thrilled to apply all this knowledge while flying over the Fall. Mackinac Island is very well known for its fudge, so of course I had to try some. I can proudly say I understand what all the fuss is about! I wanted to thank all the CJP members and guest that attended the regional event for being so helpful and welcoming. All your kind words and advice meant so much to me. I look forward to seeing some familiar faces in AirVenture this July!

I began taking Physics I over the summer. Physics has always been a difficult subject for me, however I have a wonderful professor this semester. I’m very happy to report I scored the highest grade in the class on our last Exam! I never thought I could excel at such a complex topic, but with great professors anything is possible. I also took my commercial certificate written exam and had a passing score of 94, the highest I have achieved thus far. Next on my summer To-Do list is completing my instrument rating written exam as well as finishing Forever Flying.

Since we’re about half way through the summer I’m spend time with my family and friends while I still have the chance! I’m still working for the flight department during my days and at the restaurant during the evenings. I’d like to accumulate as many hours as I can before the Fall semester starts and the real hard work begins. I look forward to seeing you at AirVenture!

Andrius Logvinenka, 2017 Scholarship Recipient

I hope everyone is doing well at CJP, and enjoying their start to the summer. I just wanted to update everyone on how I was doing since my last update at the end of April. I am doing very well and finished my spring semester strong. I was planning on only staying during a portion of the summer at Embry Riddle to get my private pilot licenses, but I had some delays along the way and I am now going to stay a couple of extra weeks and finish it out, before I go back to Reno to visit friends and family.

I am currently waiting for my Stage 2 Flight check, before ultimately going for my actual check ride. I think the most exciting that happened during my flight training during these last two months is that I got to go on my solo cross country, which was super fun and exciting to fly.

On July 10, I am going to take two summer online classes at my local community college back in Reno, to knock some general ed. courses out of the way while I’m gone. When I get back to Riddle at the end of August, I hope to be starting to work on my instrument rating on top of all the new classes that I will be taking for the fall semester. Sorry for this update being kind of short, nothing too eventful has happened these last two months.

Dillon Smith, 2017 Scholarship Recipient

The spring semester at Embry-Riddle has ended and summer is in full swing. After a brief visit home to Sumner, WA I am back at the University working as one of two Lead Student Coordinators for Summer Programs. The University hosts week long college preparation orientated camps for high schoolers, and I am a lead contact for all the student employees in charge of making schedules, emailing parents, and addressing various concerns. I could not ask for a better summer job, especially since I can continue my flight training as well as working.

I am in the thick of stage two instrument flight training at Embry-Riddle and it is by far the most challenging course I have encountered to date. I have spent many hours in the simulator learning to fly partial panel. You don’t realize how attached you are to the automation until it is taken away. I am learning that navigation with a standby attitude indicator and a magnetic compass is no easy task. However, the biggest hurdle for me by far is the fact that I am training with a new flight instructor for the first time. The transition came unexpectedly about three weeks ago when I received a text message from my flight instructor that he had received a new multi-engine commercial flight student and I had been assigned to a new instructor. Instinctively, I immediately became very resistant to the change. I had never trained with a CFI other than Josh and we had a good relationship that I did not want to lose. But, overtime I concluded that if I am going to have a career in the aviation industry I must be able to adapt, learn, communicate, and work with a multitude of people. I must go which every way the wind is blowing. Thankfully my new instructor Mike is very knowledgeable in instrument flight and the whole situation is a huge blessing in disguise.

The only downside to instrument flight training in general is that you do a ton of training in the sim and a minuscule amount of actual flying. Luckily, I made up for that by renting an aircraft at my home town airport when I visited home for two weeks at the end of May. Although it made my mother nervous, I passed a rental checkout at Pierce County Thun Field in Puyallup, WA and took my father up flying for the first time. It was an amazing feeling to be the pilot in command with no instructor looking over my shoulder.

I had an incredible time sharing my joy of aviation with my dad as we flew over my hometown and circled the elementary school my mom teaches at as she watched from below. There is nothing better than flying for fun and I intend to do it again when I return home at the end of July with high hopes of taking my brothers flying. By far, the theme of my summer as been to embrace change and expect the unexpected.

A lot of things are changing in my life from new flight instructors, new job, and moving off campus for the first time. It has been an amazing journey and I see no reason not to enjoy every minute of it. I look forward to meeting some of you at the CJP Napa Regional and the CJP Annual Convention. Until then I wish everyone the best and once again thank you for supporting me.