BY NICHOLAS PAYIATIS

Parents often tell teens, “Your attitude determines your altitude,” but for senior Walker Van Hook, who has been working towards his pilot’s license, it’s often his altitude that determines his attitude.

“I like being in the air. It’s such a unique opportunity to be in control of a thing that takes off the ground with you in it,” Van Hook said.  Originally, however, Van Hook did not want to get into the air.  As a child, he would go to the tarmac with his older brother, Will (Mariemont Graduate ’13) and help his father clean the family’s plane.  The temperature on the tarmac in the summer in Texas would often reach above 100 degrees, making the experience unpleasant.  Because of his experiences, Van Hook was hesitant to learn how to fly.

“My dad had a passion for flying and he’d been bothering me about to try it for years. I finally figured I’d give it a shot. I decided one day I might as well try it to see if he was right, and I realized he was.”  Before Van Hook first started to take control of the plane, his instructor took him on a 45-minute discovery flight to show him some things the plane could do.

“On the flight, we did a banked turn, where the wings were perpendicular to the ground to the point you could feel a substantial amount of g force,” Van Hook said.  While he has not had to perform such maneuvers, he does note that performing certain regular maneuvers for the first time such as landing or landing with crosswinds can be nerve-racking. “Once you land once or twice it becomes enjoyable, even if there is a crosswind present.”

Van Hook, however, is not always in the plane.  If the weather is bad, Van Hook participates in a ground lesson. He said, “It is sort of like a school class, we go over certain topics of flight, like aerodynamics, weather or procedures.”

When the weather is good enough, he and his instructor will take to the sky. But Van Hook still has to accomplish routine work every lesson, before he gets airborne. “I practice the pre-flight, which means making sure the fuel is tipped off, that all the controls are working, going through the starting engine checklist, and multiple other checklists.”  Only after that, Van Hook can taxi down the runway and to take off.

To earn his license, Van Hook must get a certain amount of hours with a flight instructor, pass a written test, complete solo flying hours, and pass a flying test.  Getting his pilot’s license is only one step in the process for Van Hook. He said, “Pursuing my pilot’s license now will be helpful since I’d like to be a pilot for the Air Force or the Navy.”

Van Hook doesn’t see this as the only reason to pursue flying and encourages anyone who has the opportunity to try it.  “Flying is a great experience.  So if you get the opportunity, don’t waste it.”