Introduction

Hello,

            My name is Scott Lange. A little about my past, I grew up on a small farm outside of Maybee, MI throwing hay bales and shoveling cow maneuver for nothing more than three meals a day, a place to sleep, and a good education. Although baling hay in the summer heat and feeding cattle in the winter cold was back breaking work, farming definitely had its perks. When we did have time to play, my brother and I always found ways to have fun. With vast open spaces, the only thing to do that made sense was to run anything with a motor on it for amusement. Snowmobiling, four-wheeling, dirt-biking, off-roading, drag racing, lawn tractor pulling, if you name it, we drove it. In doing so, we both become motor heads; although my brother has since become a mechanical engineer, I have found my home in aviation.

            When I was still in grade school, I was introduced to flying by my neighbor who had a Cherokee Six. He let me sit in the right seat and fly over my house at 150mph, I was hooked! I subscribed to flying magazine and instantly became a wing nut. Our farm also just happened to be under the final approach course for runway 4L into Detroit Metro Airport. As I watched those airliners line up five at a time on the ILS in a perfect line while I worked in the field, I couldn't help myself from dreaming. I made up my mind that I wanted to fly for the airlines some day.

            As high school came around and college advisors started compelling me to think of my future, I looked into the possibility of flying for a living. As many have, I quickly got a reality check as to how much flight training would cost. I eventually wrote off the possibility completely by telling myself that it would cost too much to fly.

             I started my first semester of community college taking basic classes while working at Monroe Custer Airport to pay bills. Every week I would fuel planes for pilots that flew in from around the country, watching them land with smiles on their faces. I was amazed at how easy it looked to just go up on a flight, it was like second nature to these people. As six months of working at the airport passed by I realized I would never be happy if  I never attempted to fly.

            In March of 2010 I started flight training in a Cessna 150 in Monroe, paying for it with every extra dollar I could manage from a $9 an hour job. It was a struggle, but less than a year later I achieved my private pilot certificate. Since then I have started flight training at Eagle Flight Center and have attained my Certified Flight Instructor certificate, just recently starting training student pilots at the flight center. I plan on working toward more ratings and instructing until I have accomplished my goal of flying for an airline. I know it will be a long road, but I accept the challenge.