MY JOURNEY CONTINUES…COL
My name is Travis Senft and I hope you had a chance to read my article “Journey to Become a Pilot at Seventeen” in the Spring 2021 magazine. In this article, I spoke about not being afraid of hard work, keeping opportunities always in front of you, and always being prepared. I found these simple principles have served me well in my journey. I am confident it can also serve you just as well as you define your journey. I am now navigating to my next waypoint. Unfortunately, navigating to my next waypoint is not as easy as putting the information into my navigational device, verifying the information, pushing the “Direct To” button, and letting the autopilot put me on a course to my next waypoint. The autopilot not only puts me on a direct course, it also corrects my heading for crosswinds. While I am preparing to depart for college, I have checked the weather, NOTAMS, and runway information; I am prepared for changing crosswinds that might cause me to make heading changes to my course. I find myself referring back to the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared”. I would also encourage you to always be prepared for crosswinds that might blow you off course. Remember, just because you have to correct for crosswinds on your journey, you still can reach your destination safely. How did I prepare for my flight to college? Research, college visits, and asking lots of questions was the plan that helped me navigate to the right college for me. I started at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I took time to visit almost every college and university booth at the annual airshow. I did not stop at every booth because I had already decided that I would like to attend a college within a few hour flight of my home in Wisconsin. Although great choices, this eliminated colleges like Liberty, Embry Riddle, and the University of North Dakota. With the more distant colleges eliminated, I started my tour of all the other colleges at the airshow.
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This included Southern Illinois University, Dubuque University, Western Michigan University, Saint Louis University, and Minnesota State University Mankato. All of the colleges had excellent representatives that could answer questions about the aviation programs and the college. Many also had students that flew a plane into the show. This was especially helpful because I could ask the question directly to flight students and check out the planes that I would be flying. Most of my questions focused on flying as a first-year student already having a private pilot’s license. After my initial visit to AirVenture, I eliminated Western Michigan University and Saint Louis University. Although both schools have award-winning programs, they were not the right fit for my needs and situation. This started the second phase of my flight plan. I started to contact each school to set up a tour of the college and aviation centers. This process was super easy and everyone was helpful. I started at Minnesota State University Mankato. I set up a campus tour to meet with the Director of Aviation on Monday morning. My dad booked a hotel room and rental car. More about the rental car later. It was a beautiful fall Sunday morning. I completed my preflight, pulled the RV-12 out of the hangar and we started on our two and a half hour crosscountry flight to Mankato. The flight was uneventful and the scenery was breathtaking. Until we got within ten nautical miles of the airport. Wow, we were being innovated with airplanes. Airplanes are everywhere in every direction. The ADS-B screen was filled with traffic at every altitude, speed, and direction. What is going on? This little airport just south of the Twin Cities was blowing up with air traffic. We were just going crazy looking for traffic and flying the airplane. I was able to fly a perfect pattern despite the formation of two aircraft cutting me off. Once on the ground, I looked over towards the ramp and it was packed with airplanes and