Becoming a private pilot is known to be an arduous process. Students need to have 50 training hours, pass a 60-question multiple choice exam, log 10 hours of solo flight, do three solo flights and more. Plant student William Henry Johnson (12) was interviewed on his journey of becoming a private pilot.  

“What got you into flying?” Johnson was asked.  

“I got a scholarship from JROTC here at Plant,” he stated. “They sent me up to Purdue in Indiana to get my private pilot license over the summer.” 

Purdue University, a public institute located in central Indiana, has majors ranging from aviation and aeronautical engineering to biology and biomedical sciences.  

For Johnson, aviation was the goal. He describes his first task, the process of finding a flight school: 

“Definitely do your research,” Johnson explains. “There’re a couple schools that are ‘written’ in flying like Purdue, a couple Embry Riddles, one in South Dakota. But I chose Purdue’s.”  

“I want to go back to Purdue University for undergrad to pursue my dream of aviation,” Johnson furthers.  

Johnson was then asked about his experiences at Purdue University. He describes the skills he learned.  

“My instructor was super nice and incredibly patient,” Johnson commented. “I learned all the manoeuvres: power-on stalls, power-off stalls, short field take-offs and landings, soft field take-offs and landings, turns around a point, other stalls, and spins.”  

For Johnson, learning flight skills wasn’t just a pastime.  Each exercise was performed repeatedly to ensure mastery over the aircraft. The hours of preparation helped him build the confidence needed to solo the airplane.  

Johnson was able to fly solo for the first time on June 15, 2025. “My first thought was they let me have this plane?” exclaimed Johnson. “I also did my first go around that day, and it was really scary because of the 17-knot crosswind.”  

Johnson was also asked about challenges he faced when pursuing his private pilot license.  

“I think crosswind landings (a landing done with wind pushing into the fuselage of the airplane) were really difficult because you have to keep the ailerons into the wind the whole way down and need to maintain the centre points. They were definitely a challenge.”  

While Johnson describes the importance of sitting in a plane and learning hands-on flying, he explains that aviation also requires studying. 

“I studied for my written exam (a 60-question multiple choice exam for students pursuing a private pilot license) every day for two weeks from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed,” Johnson recalls. “I got an 87 on it which was the fifth highest in my class of about 57,” Johnson added. 

When asked about his studying methods, Johnson said, “I had the problem of overstudying rather than understudying. There were some questions that made no sense, but I just tried my best, and overstudying helped there.”  

And while Johnson received the score on his exam he wished for, his journey in aviation didn’t end there. Johnson ultimately received an endorsement for his solo cross-country (an expedition from one airport to another 200 miles away) legs. 

“I did two solo cross countries. One was over to Champaign, Ill., and the second one was over to Gary in Chicago, Ill.”  

Johnson also describes his thoughts during this part of the journey: 

“The first time was really really scary. But every time afterwards has been a real privilege to fly on my own.” 

Johnson finally describes the day of his check ride (the last examination before acquiring the private pilot license). 

“My check ride was on Aug. 1, and it went well. We had to discontinue part of it because the weather got really bad, but I finished it on Aug. 1, and because I had done many similar exercises all in three days of each other, it felt like I had done a check ride three times. So, it went really well.”  

Now that Johnson has received his private pilot license, he spoke about his next goals: 

“I’m going for my high-performance rating next,” Johnson says. “I then want to go for my complex and multi-engine ratings after that.” “This’ll help me pursue my dream of flying,” Johnson adds.  

“This was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done,” Johnson reflected. “But now that I’ve done it, I can do anything.”