Congratulations to Ben Hausch, EAA 1381716, on recently passing his private pilot checkride on August 6!
19-year-old Ben is currently attending Purdue University as a sophomore in the aeronautical engineering program.
While Ben’s interest in aviation began many years ago, it was his university that inspired him to go after his private pilot certificate.
“I’m in aerospace engineering, so a lot of relation to that and aviation and there was obviously a lot of crossover between the two,” Ben said. “So, it seemed like something that would, one, be a whole lot of fun to do, and also kind of teach me a lot; get me ahead a little bit in terms of learning about practical applications.”
As many of us know, it can be tough to find the free time to pursue much of anything outside of your studies as a college student.
“I just never really found the time to actually get started,” Ben said. “I had a study abroad planned this summer but then the same thing that happened to a lot of plans this summer, those fell through with everything going on [referring to COVID-19]. So, I had a good three months on my hands where I didn’t really know what I was doing, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump on it.”
Ben completed his private pilot training through Blue Skies Flying Services, located in Lake in the Hills, Illinois.
“Passing the checkride was a big weight off my shoulders,” Ben said. “This whole time, me and my instructor had been in this mad scramble. We were planning as efficiently as we could. I had two and a half months to get this done before I went back to school, and we did not have a lot of wiggle room with that. So, if things didn’t go well on this checkride, it would have been difficult for me to seek training again. So yeah, when I found out I passed it, it was a very big deep breath. This had been my entire summer’s work and we were really pushing it.”
As a new pilot and earnest college student, Ben has some large goals set for his future. Ben dreams of working at NASA as an aerospace engineer someday.
“Being a pilot will hopefully open more doors for me and my career prospects after college,” Ben said. “I know it’s corny, but I’d love to work at NASA.”
But for the time being, Ben is just enjoying the ride as a new pilot.
“Right now, I’m just trying to kind of settle in here at school, start carving out time to go fly and start signing the planes out at the cool areas here,” Ben said. “Getting my instrument rating is something I’m definitely interested in, just for safety, no matter if this ends up just being a hobby or not. I’m very happy with it kind of just being a hobby for now.”
Entering the world of aviation as a new pilot can sometimes feel intimidating, there are so many paths to explore and the possibilities are seemingly endless.
Jack Harrington, EAA board member and previous rental customer of Blue Skies Flying Services, was inspired by the company’s successful and popular flight school having a high volume of young aviation enthusiasts enrolled.
Jack decided to sponsor Ben as an EAA legacy member to help him get started as a new pilot. As a legacy member, Ben will receive a free membership to EAA, and access to benefits associated including resources for continuous education, discounts, and help connecting with others in the community through an EAA chapter.
“I chose Blue Skies because I was able to get people who are not necessarily involved with EAA, and their families are not necessarily involved with EAA, and I wanted to give the opportunity to someone who didn’t know about EAA or have access to joining,” Jack said. “Blue Skies is such a great place. They have so many young people studying there. It’s a great place for us to select some more of these legacy members and bring them on board.”
When Jack met Ben, he saw a spark – a passion for aviation within him – and knew he needed to sponsor him.
“He just impressed me as an individual,” Jack said. “He came so highly recommended from his instructor and the folks at Blue Skies, so, I just thought he’d be the perfect type of person we want as far as somebody getting in this legacy program. He’s awesome. He finished his certificate in two months, in 62 hours, and that’s pretty impressive, particularly flying around the Chicago area. The airspace is pretty complex around here.”
Ben said he is excited to join the EAA community, a community that is surely equally excited to welcome him!
“I think the best thing is just meeting other people,” Ben said. “Aviation is kind of funky because it’s a really big community but it’s really easy to not know about it, unless you’ve done quite a bit of learning and being around it for a while. So, knowing the pilots and knowing the people in your area, it’s a really cool community to be part of it because it’s something that’s so easy to not know about. And it’s something that’s so helpful, especially if you are a pilot. I’m really excited to start getting to know people through EAA.”
Congratulations Ben from all of us at EAA!
Have you reached a milestone recently? Passed a checkride, given your first or hundredth Young Eagles flight, flown your homebuilt for the first time? Tell us about it at EAA.org/submissions. To learn more about legacy memberships and how to sponsor someone, visit EAA.org/legacy