Where Are They Now: Daniel Weaver

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I have been interested in aviation for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up my family and I did a lot of airline flying and I was always in awe of the mechanical complexity of the giant metal tubes hurtling through the air at 500mph. At a very young age I had made up my mind that I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up. However, given that none of my family members were pilots I didn’t really have anyone who could guide me on the first steps to becoming a pilot. As a present for my 13th birthday my aunt took me to my first Young Eagles rally in Sequim. At the rally I got the opportunity to take the controls of an RV-9 and for the first time it started to feel like learning to fly was an achievable goal. As part of the Young Eagles program the EAA provides a free online private pilot ground school which I started vigorously studying. The free ground school gave me a strong foundation of knowledge which came in handy my senior year of high school I when was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship which covered part of the cost of my PPL. Since then I have gone on to pursue my commercial pilot and flight instructor ratings and I am now working as a charter pilot and instructor at KCLM and doing my best to set my students up for success.