BUTTE — When you’re 16 or 17 years old, you’re usually dreaming of the open road and getting that driver’s license—but for one Butte High School student, the sky is the limit as she works towards getting her pilot’s license.
"I’ve kind of just known ever since I was younger. My grandpa used to be a pilot and he took me up when I was younger and that just kind made me love it," said MacKenzie Hadley.
Flying is in Mackenzie’s blood; her dad and most of his family are licensed pilots. But one year ago when she was just 16 years old, she took to the skies in a discovery flight and she says she was worried.
"The discovery flight, I was kind of nervous for just in case I, like, hated it but then I kind of realized that I did love it and like, I was like, yeah this is what I want to do," says Hadley.
While holding down a job as an assistant waitress—because she is not yet old enough to be a server—and studying for school, Hadley also commits herself to becoming a pilot. In the last year, she has studied flight manuals and immersed herself in online tutorials and she passed a written exam that allowed her to fly solo with an instructor.
"I fly the entire time just practicing some maneuvers. He’ll demonstrate but it’s usually me behind the controls the entire time," says Hadley.
Hadley takes lessons four to five times a week with Butte Aviation, and flight instructor Jake Strong says that at 17 years old she is unique among his students because of her age. But he says being a young pilot does have its benefits.
"So one benefit of being young is you take in information easier and remember it easier. The one thing that we really have to watch out with young pilots is decision making skills, right? Because as a pilot that’s really what training is for is to teach people how to make good decisions when bad situations come up," says Strong.
"You kind of have to have the attitude of um, like, that you’re not, like it’s not just like you can do whatever you want but you also have to realize that you’re the one in control, and at the end of the day you are the one making the decisions—like the life decisions between like, life and death in the air," says Hadley.
Hadley has decided to continue on in the sky as she works through her senior year. Upon graduation, she’ll take her spot in the commercial aviation program at the University of North Dakota.
