HUDSON, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — Amid a national pilot shortage, a program here in Upstate New York aims to fill that gap by training pilots younger than usual.
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High school seniors at one of many Questar III Boces locations have done the real have flown planes all by themselves at just 16 and 17 years old.
A simulator at their Hudson location bounces and rocks to mimic turbulence. With his hand to the controls, high school senior and licensed pilot Nicholas Rutenauer operated a maze of neon buttons and navigated through simulated turbulence.
“It’s definitely scary but it’s kind of fun if you know…like…what to do in the situation,” said Rutenauer.
As you can imagine it would be a lot for anyone, much less a teenager, to solo pilot an airplane. “I mean it’s really indescribable. I mean you’re by yourself, you’ve got to trust your instincts that you know what you do that you were trained right” said Germantown Highschooler, Adele Heuer, 17.