As some take off into their senior year of high school, some of us are actually taking off.
“I’ve always been a big fan aviation,” Xander Lisowski said.
So when a scholarship became available that would give him the opportunity to fly a plane through his time in NJROTC, he decided to apply.
“There’s an application. You have to do a physical fitness test, you had to take an actual written exam, and then you had to do an essay,” Lisowski said.
Across the country, the Naval Air Force sponsored only 28 high schoolers for a scholarship that would allow them to receive their pilot’s license once the program was completed.
With such stern requirements and availability, Lisowski never expected to get the scholarship.
“So then I applied, and to my surprise, I got the scholarship,” Lisowski said.
Over the summer, he attended the flight program at Delaware University in Dover, Delaware, where he was able to live on campus and experience college life for two months.
“Oh, the college campus was cool, but Dover, Delaware, is terrible, and no one should ever go there,” Lisowski said.
Those two months were filled with constant schooling or flying every day with little to no breaks.
“Oh, it was definitely super hard. It was 6 am to 10 pm every day.” Lisowski said. “It’s ground school and flying, and if you’re not doing one of those two things, then you’re eating or studying.”
Ground school covered regulations, weather, and the physics of flying. After learning all of this information, you had to take an FAA written test based on each unit and what was taught.
When he finally got to do his first flight in a Piper Warrior PA 28 which is a
single-engine, his instructor rode along with him and guided him through the skies.
“Honestly, it was kind of hectic because there’s a lot going on, Lisowski said. “My instructor… he kind of basically told us everything that we’re going to need to know in that first flight; he was having us do everything that first flight or at least as much as we could.”
Once he flew for the first time though, he realized something important.
“The thing about flying is that it’s unlike anything else that [he’d] ever done before,” Lisowski said. “It’s super difficult because I don’t have anything else to reference it on since I was completely new,” said Lisowski.
Once he finished the phase of flying with an instructor, he was released to have solo flights. The furthest he flew solo was around 60 miles and for 40 minutes, up to Lancester, Delaware, and back. While the furthest he flew with his instructor was a four-hour flight.
Throughout the whole program, his favorite part was the reason he attended in the first place.
“I would say actually getting my pilot’s license on that last week was an amazing experience,” Lisowski said.
Furthermore, in some freestyle flights, he got the opportunity to fly with experienced pilots.
“We had to fly aerobatic flights with former Navy pilots, and that was amazing as well,” Lisowski said.
In the future, Xander doesn’t have a set plan; however, he plans to use his license and keep it up to date. Then, when he has more time on his hands, he wants to earn his instrument rating.
“I plan to go back and get my instrument rating…which is where you can fly without looking outside of the plane,” Lisowski said.
