FLIGHT PLAN
Cleared for Takeoff
The youngest student pilot at JWA Flight School is 13-years-old. Too young for a driver’s permit, too young to see a PG-13 movie alone, but old enough to take the controls of an airplane.
That student isn’t an outlier. About 90 teenagers train at JWA. Roughly 20 of those teenagers are girls, alongside three women among the school’s 11 instructors. “About 20% of the school is female, which is higher than the national average,” says Wayne Brazinski, who leads the school. Better still, girls graduate at about the same rate as the boys.
The FAA’s newest U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics show why that matters: women pilots in America just topped 100,000 for the first time. That is up 72% since 2020, and women now make up 16.4% of student pilots, the highest share of any certificate level. A century after Amelia Earhart pushed against a closed cockpit door, the gap is narrowing — and teenagers are the ones narrowing it.
The proof is on JWA’s ramp. Emily Pavuk trained at JWA and soon after went on to the Air Force Academy. Most teens who train are headed for aviation careers, civilian or military. Nico Cimino started at 17, graduated this spring from Minooka High School, and he is headed to Lewis University to become an airline pilot. According to the Boeing Company, which manufactures and is one of the world’s largest aerospace manufacturers and defense contractors, they think “The world will need 660,000 new pilots by 2044.”
But the license may be the smallest thing a teen pilot earns. There’s a confidence in being sixteen and landing an airplane by yourself and the self-trust no classroom could ever teach. The airport becomes a second home full of friends who share the same spark. It feeds a sense of adventure.
The path is practical, too. Teens can solo at 16 and get licensed at 17, after about 65 flight hours. One lesson a week equals a pilot’s license in about a year, which is doable while balancing schoolwork. While four flights a week can finish it in a single summer. For those who are curious, a discovery flight or a high school aviation club can be a great first step.
Every parent asks about safety. The honest answer: NTSB data puts general aviation at about one fatal accident per 100,000 flight hours—a 0.001% chance per hour aloft—and 2024 had the lowest fatal accident rate since FAA tracking began in 2009. Training flights are among the safest flying of all, down 52% since 2012 and, hour for hour, in the same range as a young driver behind the wheel. The difference, Brazinski says, is discipline: good pilots don’t make the little mistakes that are completely avoidable.
Still on the fence? Plenty of pilots fear heights but find they love flying anyway. You can always book a discovery flight, or join Girls in Aviation Day on September 19, with hands-on events at airports nationwide from Women in Aviation International. As Brazinski says: “You miss every shot you don’t take.”
For the teenagers at JWA, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s the starting point.
About the Author
Evelyn Saxton (15) is a junior at Hinsdale Central High School and a third-generation private pilot-in-training at JWA Flight School. She hopes to inspire more young people, especially girls, to explore opportunities in aviation.
