Live and let fly

Jake Larson should have the hours logged to start his job as a commercial airline pilot around his 20th birthday, but because most commercial airlines require pilots be at least 21, he’ll have to wait until June 2025 to fly for them.

But with the pilot's license he got when he was 17, and the instrument certification he’s already completed, he has just two more certifications to earn before he’s well on his way to flying commercially.

“When I was 8 years old, my dad would take me to the air shows at Fairchild Air Force Base," he said.

When he turned 12, Larson’s father worked out a deal with the owner of Latitude Aviation, a local outfit, and flight instructor Jeff Fouché. He would wash airplanes in exchange for flight time. Larson was too young to fly by himself, but he got as much time in the air as he could.

Mechanics at the hangar would let the kid do some of their light mechanical work so he could learn maintenance.

“I have a good amount of mentors in the airlines,” Larson said

Pilots have helped him understand what to expect from the lifestyle as a pilot, and how he’ll be able to travel.

“Every penny of what I make at my job goes into my flight training,” Larson said.

He’s a lifeguard at the Kroc Center for now, and he flies in his free time with a Civil Air Patrol plane.

Civil Air Patrol is funded by the Air Force and covered almost half the cost of Larson’s pilot’s license after he was accepted in the Cadet Wings Program, a national, merit-based program to help kids earn a private pilot’s license.

In order to earn the Cadet Wings mentorship, Larson had to commit all his free time to flight, whether in studying for tests or being in the air.

“The process taught me maturity and responsibility,” Larson said.

But the sacrifice of free time, and money, is still something Larson does willingly in order to stay in the air.

With his pilot's license and a dream to fly long-haul flights, he was accepted into the Horizon Pilot Development Program.

“I was the youngest person there,” Larson said. “And the second youngest was likely 23.”

The program is part of Alaska Airlines’ push to answer the pilot shortage. Through it, Larson will receive mentoring and support while on his path to get an instrument rating (which he received a few weeks ago), a commercial certificate and a flight instructor certification.

In exchange for an on-call pilot assigned to answer any question he can dream up, and $12,500 toward his flight schooling, Larson signed a contract to fly for Horizon Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air, for two years.

He’ll have to commute to his base airport whenever he has to fly, which could be Seattle, Portland, Spokane or Anchorage.

“I would enjoy going to Anchorage,” Larson said.

He’d also enjoy Seattle.

He won’t know which airport will be his base until he’s hired in 2025, so he’s choosing not to worry about it yet.

When he does get hired as a full-time pilot, he’ll receive an automatic 70 hours per month, so even if he doesn’t fly 70 hours in a month, he’ll still receive a dependable base pay.

Until then, Larson can use the Civil Air Patrol planes to complete his training hours. He also flies as co-pilot for search and rescue trips, or to Bozeman for lunch. He flies to Glacier National Park for the day, or he can fly to many airports in Canada, where he can ski for the day using a crew airport vehicle for transportation, and fly back that night.

He isn’t old enough to rent a car yet, so that can limit his ability to travel sometimes, though he has been able to fly over Switzerland and Austria.

Someday, Larson may see himself getting his own plane, but the 2021 Cessna 182 he flies for being a part of the CAP, valued at $800,000, is a better rig than he expects to be able to afford for a long time — even with his 70-hour base pay of double many people’s income.

He hasn’t discarded the idea of possibly getting a bachelor’s degree some day. He was even accepted to attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., but with the number of hours he already had logged, it made more sense for him to accept the Horizon pilot program with a job lined up before he’d be able to graduate Embry Riddle.

For now, he has flight classes, written tests, oral tests, flight tests and certifications to focus on, so it feels a lot like school.

Someday, he may do air traffic control, but he wants to be in the flying community forever, and he never really sees himself leaving it.