The four distinguished recipients of the 2017 Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarship – Brooke Harrington, Andrius Logvinenka, Kimberly Rangel Martinez, and Dillon Smith – recently provided the following updates on their studies, and their busy plans in the months ahead.

Brooke Herrington

I feel like the school year has just flown by! This marks the end of our spring semester as well as the end of my first academic year at Embry-Riddle. It was an incredibly busy school year filled with many pleasant surprises, including a surprise visit from CJP!

Kim and I were under the impression we were meeting with some faculty members to discuss our awards and have our photos taken. Once we arrived we were surprised to see an award presentation just for us! In addition to having a crowd of students and faculty there to congratulate us on winning our awards, Cheryl, Chick, and Tracy flew in and surprised us!

After gathering for lunch, Kim and I had the opportunity to tour the Citation CJ3. I must say the sleek design and incredible avionics has me second guessing my future career choices. While flying a 777 is my current goal, if given the opportunity there is no way I could decline flying an aircraft as exciting as the Citation Jet!

Just when I thought there were no more surprises left, we were invited to have lunch at the Southeast Ramp in Sanford. It was absolutely the coolest Key West-style hangar I had ever seen! From the collection of propellers to the Maule and Citation parked inside, there was so much attention to detail. I was in awe the entirety of our visit and I have some new collectors’ items to add to my wish list. After a wonderful lunch, Kim and I received formal invitations to attend the upcoming CJP Regional Event in Mackinac Island and AirVenture in Oshkosh with CJP! I am so looking forward meeting CJP members and attending these prestigious events.

This summer I will be taking a light course load and working. With the extra free time, I have a list of goals I’d like to accomplish by summer’s end including completion of my written instrument test, testing for my Remote Pilot Certificate, and becoming a notary. I’m looking forward to enjoying time with my family and of course traveling to new places with CJP!

Andrius Logvinenka

These last two months have gone by the blink of an eye. During the weekdays, I am in school or flying, and on the weekends I work, so time is just flying by. I have really been grinding on my school and really trying to get the most out of classes and everything has been going well. My grades are right where I want to be except one class that I have a B in, but otherwise I am learning a lot.

In the last update, I just did my solo, but my instructor left. After some waiting I have another instructor! We have been going through a lot of units and I will most likely do my local practice area solos in the next two weeks. I applied for a fast finish program at Embry Riddle, which means I am going to stay for summer until I get my Private Pilot License, which is super exciting, and I will finish my goal of getting my Private Pilot License freshman year.

For my spring break my friends and I decided to head down to San Diego, where one of friends lives at. My friend currently has a private pilot licenses, so he rented a plane and we flew around San Diego, which was magical. I will include some pictures I took from the airplane in the email.

After two days in San Diego we decided to go to Los Angeles before we head back to Prescott. Being the airplane nerds we are, we went plane spotting at LAX, which was a great time. Now I am just trying to ace these finals, and afterwards really focus on getting my PPL.

Kimberly Rangel Martinez

April has been a very tight yet exciting month, with the end of the semester approaching and the beginning of summer starting soon. Many new experiences and surprises that I never imagined about happened in the last couple months since my first update.

In the beginning of April, I attended Sun ‘N Fun for my very first time in Lakeland, Florida. Approaching the entrance and seeing aircraft after aircraft take off right above my head, with the runway right next to us, was overwhelming and sensational. Already I was content even before entering the venue. Watching 3 hours straight of airshow performances was breathtaking and ignited my inner child for aviation. Although all the airshow performers were great to see, my favorite performers were the Blue Angels. They brought goosebumps to my skin. While there I was also able to meet with and reconnect with a pilot friend from my hometown in Washington. I hope to continue to attend this aviation wonderland next year.

At the end of April I got to travel to the Willis Tower in Chicago for an interview for an internship position with United Airlines. Although I only got a glimpse of Chicago, due to my tight turnaround flight, I enjoyed meeting with United managers and viewing the facilities of a major airline.

Lastly, one of my favorite highlights from this past period was going to CJP’s facilities in Sanford, Florida. I thank Cheryl, Tracy and Chick for taking time out of their busy schedule and inviting us to their CJP home. I never imagined having lunch with a Citation jet in front of me and a seaplane behind me in a hangar that looks like the Keys.

I was blown away by this hangar paradise. I was even more blown away by the surprise trips we will be taking this summer. I am beyond grateful and excited to be traveling to Mackinac, Michigan, and Oshkosh with the Citation Jet Pilot and Owner Association this summer. I already know these trips will be the highlight of my summer. I can’t wait to tell you all about those trips in my next update!

Dillon Smith

Hello, CJP family! It’s been about two months since I lasted checked in and I can’t believe I am basically done with my sophomore year and halfway done with my college journey. I am beyond excited to share all the amazing adventures I have been having these past few months and the challenges I have faced. Between school, flying, and spring break I have a lot to share.

I believe I have discussed my membership to the Christian youth group on Campus called Chi Alpha before in previous newsletters and this spring break I had the privilege of going to back to Mexico to do mission work for a second year and hiking Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon for the first time with Chi Alpha. For our mission to Mexico, we caravanned down through Yuma, Arizona to a border town called San Louis Rio Colorado. We stayed at a boy’s home in the town.

While in Mexico we put on a carnival for the orphans, handed rice and beans out to shut-ins and put 5 tin roofs on houses. I personally was involved with putting two roofs up… and managed to only fall off one of them. Luckily, I escaped uninjured. By the time we got to the second roof, my friends and I got smarter and I lowered each other down the roof using tie-down straps from someone’s car. It was an unbelievably humbling experience to be able to serve those less fortunate than and I can’t wait till I can go back next year.

For the second half of spring break I had the privilege of backpacking 13 miles into an incredible spot called Havasupai Falls. They are beautiful waterfalls with bright blue flowing water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I hiked in one day, played for one day, and hiked out on the third. The hike out with my 40 lbs. pack was brutal, but the experience was worth it. It is the kind of thing you must see to believe.

My instrument flight training went better than I could have ever asked for this semester. I am excited to report that I passed my check ride for stage one last Thursday and will start the final stage this summer. I love instrument flying and don’t mind that I can’t look outside. My love and passion for instrument flying makes me more certain that I want to follow a career in commercial or corporate aviation. The only downside to instrument flight training is that I don’t get very much flying time because most tasks are accomplished in the simulator. But such is life.

This summer I will start stage 2 in which I will take on partial panel approaches, and cross country flights. This rating is happening so much faster than I could have ever expected and I am so excited to finish and become an instrument rated pilot.

Finals week is already here and by the time you read this I may already be home for a short summer vacation. I did a lot better in my classes than I anticipated and am very satisfied with my performance on my final exams, however I can’t wait for it to be over. This summer I will go home to visit my family in Washington for about two weeks in May. I plan to rent a plane and take my Dad flying for the first time well I am home. Then I will be back at Embry-Riddle in late May to be the lead coordinator for the Summer Programs working with all the high school students that come to campus. Then I will go home again in July to spend more time with my family.

I am looking forward to this much-needed break ahead of me, and will be looking forward to telling you about the unforeseen adventures in my life still to come. Until then I just want to thank you for taking an interest in me and the progression of my life and career.