Among all of the Kennard Dale students’ achievements that get announced, one student has been breaking barriers outside of school, following his passion for flying. Tyler Mack, a senior at Kennard-Dale High School, is on track to receive his private piloting license, and then plans to get his commercial license. 

Mack grew up in Abingdon, Maryland, before moving to the district in elementary school. Outside of school, he plays football and lacrosse after school and enjoys fishing. 

When asked if flying was always a lifelong interest, he said it started around two years ago at the Wings and Wheels Car show in Maryland. A specific plane caught his interest, a biplane that wasn’t giving out rides like other planes were. Mack was so in awe of the plane that the owner gave him a VIP ride. 

Shortly after the show, Mack began to search for programs that trained adolescents in flying, where he chose the Young Eagles program in Gettysburg, who train kids 17 and under. 

The program is separated into chapters, Mack’s chapter being 1041, based at the Gettysburg airport. There, they have meetings once a month and do fundraisers like pancake breakfasts.

He then earned a $12,000 scholarship through the Young Eagles program, which he put towards his private pilot’s license. 

During these lessons, Mack uses his flight instructor’s plane, a Cessna 150. 

He begins his lessons with the ‘pre-flight,’ where you check everything on the plane so it can get into the air safely and come back down. During cold weather, he has to ‘plug in’ the airplane to warm it up. He does this because the oil gets thick during cold weather, which can cause the plane to not run as smoothly. He then gets the plane out of the hangar, starts down the runway, and takes off.

Mack began going on solo flight trips at some point in September of last year and has done so since. He can only fly within 25 miles, typically taking off at his hangar in Dover, and landing and doing pattern-work at the York Airport. 

Mack wants to pursue his commercial license next, but still has some things left to do. He still has to take his written test and do a ‘check ride’ to receive his private license, like when getting your driver’s license. Then, for his commercial license, he does another written test, which has about 60 questions, which he is currently studying for. The check ride for the commercial license follows, but it takes a long time to get there. He needs a minimum of 1,500 hours flying to get to the test. 

When asked why he’s turning aerospace into his career, Mack said, “Well, honestly, it’s the love that I have for flying. It’s very surreal, and I wouldn’t imagine myself not doing it. I just want to do something that I have to push myself for and work for, and flying is all of that, but it’s also fun. I love doing it.” 

When asked about how aerospace changed him, he said, “It definitely created discipline, because I’m not much of a studier in schoolwork, but you can’t get around it in flying. You can’t get around cheating because it could cost you your life or someone else’s life.” 

When asked about what steps someone can take to follow this career, he said that there were many ways, but the military is a good one because of the school and benefits. Many people go corporate, which is flying for businesses, or they can take his route and go commercial, which are airlines like United, American, or Delta. 

Mack said that his biggest tool was networking and talking to people, as well as the internet, where you can search up virtually anything regarding aviation and classes. 

“The people who have already gone through it have the best advice,” Mack said, “I’ve definitely been on this path because of them.”

Following this interview, I found his chapter’s most recent newsletter, which has its events, articles relating to the chapter, photos from their summer camp, and more. Mack is mentioned on page 7 for their air academy.