Senior Derek Darkenwald is in a family of pilots; his father, sister, and grandfather are pilots and all have influenced his future of becoming a pilot. Now it’s his turn to join the family business. Darkenwald’s love for aviation began early in his childhood in his grandfather’s plane flying through Montana’s open skies.

 “It’s an out-of-body feeling anywhere you look,” Darkenwald said. “It’s a different feeling whenever you’re up there, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m going there for college, because of what I felt as a little kid.”

One particular flight with his grandfather stands out, where he was in the right seat with his grandfather and 4,000 feet in the air.

“I saw a lot of mountains, beautiful lakes, in the wintertime, everything’s white,” Darkenwald said. “I was just looking at the sunset and realizing, ‘This is actually cool, I actually want to do this for a career.”

Darkenwald’s father has been a pilot for over two decades and served as a captain. He has already flown alongside his father who was traveling to Paris as a co-pilot. He has traveled with him in his grandfather’s plane and went camping several times. Darkenwald has been getting hands-on experience and aiming to get his pilot’s license. He’s completed about 50 hours and has been training to get his pilot’s license and is planning to carry that over to a flight school in Montana. There’s a lot of criteria to learn like meteorology, winds, physics, as well as putting in 50 hours to earn your pilot’s license and perform a solo flight. 

“You just have to know a little bit of everything, and it definitely takes a toll while you’re doing three other sports in school, so it’s definitely a challenge.” Darkenwald said.

As a basketball, baseball, and tennis player, Darkenwald has to manage his time carefully with his sports and pilot training. Darkenwald feels many emotions when thinking about his future.

“Happiness, I think I experience that the most, just being up in the air and seeing the views, being able to service other people eventually, and knowing that I can do it safely without having any incidents or anything like that because I’m going to get trained for it,” Darkenwald said. “There’s also nervousness as well. At the very beginning of my flight training, I was very nervous. I didn’t know if I could do it. I thought maybe I’m not as good as my other three or four generations that have been or become pilots. So it was definitely a nerve, but I came through it.”

Each hour Darkenwald spends in the cockpit of an airplane, he is also reminded of the best advice his father’s ever given him. 

“Don’t back down,” His father said, “There’s a lot of tests, there’s a lot of hours you have to put into it. There’s going to be downs, there’s going to be ups, but take those tests and don’t ever quit.”