‘As Long as I’m Flying I’ll Be Good’: 16-Year-old Records First Solo Flight

Jan. 26—Ethan Mattocks has not yet taken the family car for a spin on his own, but he recently climbed behind the controls of a 1979 Piper Warrior single-engine propeller plane and took it for a solo flight in the skies above Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport.

As the family likes to joke, Ethan can take a plane up to 3,000 feet, but he still can't back out of the driveway on his own. He has logged more than 10 hours in the cockpit, but only about 90 minutes at the wheel of a car so far — the weather hasn't been very cooperative since his birthday late last month, he noted.

Hooked on aviation since he was 8, the Guys Mills resident began taking flying lessons at age 15 thanks to his parents, Ryan and Lisa Mattocks. His recent 16th birthday made him eligible for a solo flight, and he wasted no time: On Jan. 11, he caught a ride with his mom from the small hobby farm where the family raises beef cattle to the Butler area airport and took to the skies.

After three full-stop landings with his instructor to get a feel for some gusty crosswinds on the mostly cloudy afternoon — and to test his nerves — Mattocks was ready to go it alone. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, he followed the same "NASCAR"-style flight plan three times — taking off, performing a series of left turns in a roughly oval shape, then making a full-stop landing and taxiing back for another takeoff.

A year of training had left him well prepared, Mattocks said, and he didn't encounter any surprises.

"If I had to use one word to describe it, I was very serene in the moment," he recalled this week. "I just felt calm in the cockpit."

Being allowed to take solo control, Mattocks continued, was rewarding but also brought with it a bit of a burden — one that he found both a privilege and "very humbling."

"Of course," he added, "I was very excited too."

As Ethan savored the serenity that comes with a bird's-eye view of northwestern Pennsylvania, his most interested spectator was experiencing feelings of a different nature. His mother, Lisa, not only provides transportation, she also films all of her son's takeoffs and landings.

"It's a pretty daunting feeling for a mom to watch," Lisa said of the solo flight.

It was Ethan's first solo flight, but it wasn't the first time Lisa found herself feeling a bit faint-hearted as she watched the skies, unable to exercise any control over what was happening there. She recalled a training flight last year when the instructor cut the plane's power.

"I heard the backfire," Lisa recalled, "and he's got to bring it around and land on the numbers — yeah, it's a little daunting for a mom to be like, OK he's got this, I can't help him there, but he's well studied and he's in good hands."

Ethan's training came from Matt Lambert, a certified flight instructor with AirQuest Aviation who described Ethan's maturity level both inside and outside the cockpit as "rather impressive."

"His flying ability is part second nature and comes naturally to him and the other part you can tell he strives very hard to work for his skill level," Lambert said. "For his age, he is by far the most far-along of any students that I've had the pleasure of teaching."

Pilots as young as Mattocks are not unheard of but remain relatively rare, according to Lambert, who currently has three students under 17 years old. He said there has been a rise in young student pilots have been evident recently and speculated that publicity regarding the nationwide pilot shortage contributed to the increase.

If they bring the same passion as Mattocks, the industry should benefit.

"I don't want to use the word prodigy, but he's very good at what he does," Lambert said. "You can tell that he takes it very seriously and practices very hard."

Next up for mattocks will be attaining his private pilot license, which he won't be eligible for until he's 17. In the meantime he hopes to continue his flight training. The flexibility of his schedule — he is homeschooled, with Lisa as his teacher — allows him to balance academics with interests like flying and other activities such as the multiple varsity sports he participates in with Crawford Christian Academy.

Ethan traced his love of all things aviation-related back to his first flight as an 8-year-old. A neighbor's grandfather was a retired commercial pilot with his own private plane and offered to take Ethan up.

Half a lifetime later, some of the details are fuzzy, but the impression left by the experience couldn't be more vivid. The plane was built in 1948, Ethan recalled, and once they were cruising, the pilot took his hands off the controls for a moment to let the 8-year-old practice some maneuvers.

"Once I took that flight, I knew I couldn't go into any other career except flying," Ethan said. "I've been wanting to become a pilot ever since."

As for the future, Ethan said he's interested in pursuing military flight training in either the Navy or Air Force, but he's not picky.

"Pretty much anything that involves flying, I'm good with," he said. "That's what I love, so as long as I'm flying I'll be good."

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at [email protected].

     ___

     (c)2023 The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.)

     Visit The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.) at meadvilletribune.com

     Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.